BROILERS 


ROASTERS 


PUBLISHED   BY 
FARM-POULTRY  PUBLiSHINa  CO., 

t3S  SUMMER  ST.,  BOSTOH,  JtlASS, 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


FARM-POULTRY     SERIES    No.     7, 


Broilers^a=Roasters 


THE 


^Specialties  of    the    Market    Poultryman. 


BV 


vV 


^     jvl 
JOHN    H.    ROBINSON, 

Editor  of   Farm-Poultry.      Author  of    "  Poultry-Craft  "<^Tc 

'  ¥ 


$ 


\ 

PRICE   5O   CE 


Published  by 
FARM-POULTRY   PUBLISHING  CO., 
"v  Boston,     Mass. 

^^  1905. 


COPYRIGHTED  BY 

FAKM-l'OULTKY     PUB.    CO. 

1904. 


BROILERS   AND    ROASTERS. 


CHAPTER     I. 


Some  General  Information  About  Market 
Poultry  Culture. 


1.  Why  Only  Broilers  and  Roasters  are  Con- 
sidered.—  This  book  will  treat  especially,  and  almost 
exclusively,  of  broilers  and  roasters  because  these  are  the 
two  classes  of  market  poultry  in  which  one  making  a 
specialty  of  growing  poultry  (chickens)  for  market  is 
interested.  It  might  be  said  that  broilers  and  roasters  are 
the  only  chickens  grown  for  market  by  specialists,  for  the 
business  poultry  keeper,  whatever  branches  he  follows, 
tries  to  work  his  surplus  young  stock  into  one  or  the  other 
of  these  two  channels  of  trade,  while  the  entire  product 
of  "fowls,"  as  old  hens  are  classed  on  the  market,  may 
be  said  to  be  a  by-product  of  egg  farming,  the  hen,  as  a 
rule,  not  going  to  market  until  her  owner  feels  that  her 
days  of  profitable  laying  are  over.  The  u  capon "  is  a 
roaster.  The  "fry"  of  the  west  and  south  is,  when  a 
small  fry,  about  the  size  of  the  largest  broilers  in  demand 
in  the  eastern  market.  The  large  fry  is  not  in  special 


4  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

demand  in  the  big  markets,  and  what  stock  of  this  grade 
comes  in  is  worked  off  as  just  ''chickens"  at  a  figure 
generally  considerably  lower  than  the  price  for  the  sizes 
most  in  demand.  It  is,  perhaps,  hardly  necessary  to  say 
that  the  least  salable  sizes  are  not  sent  to  the  market  by 
experienced  growers.  If  for  any  reason  they  do  not 
market  their  chicks  as  broilers  they  hold  them  until  they 
will  fill  the  bill  as  roasters. 

2.  What  is  a  Broiler? — The  dictionary  definition,, 
u  a  chicken,  or  the  like,  suitable  for  broiling,"  does  not 
describe  a  broiler  so  that  one  who  did  not  know  what  kind 
of  a  chicken  is  suitable  for  broiling  is  any  the  wiser  for 
having    consulted   the    dictionary.     It  is  possible  to  broil 
and    cook    in    this    way  very  nicely  chickens  very    much 
larger  than  are  sold  on  the  market  as  broilers,  but  that  does 
not  make  such  a  chicken  a  broiler.     The  technically  cor- 
rect definition  of  this  kind  of  "broiler"  is  a  chicken  or 
other  fowl  such  as  is  in  general  demand  for  broiling.    The 
difference   in  meaning  is  of  no  importance  to  the  general 
public,  but  the  would-be  producer  of  broilers  should  have 
a  clear  appreciation   of  just  what  he  is  going  to  produce, 
and   why.      His  business  is  not  merely  to  grow  chickens 
especially  adapted   for  broiling,  but  to  grow  thrifty  good 
bodied  chickens  which  are  to  be  marketed   at  some  one  of 
the  sizes  in  general  demand  for  broiling.     He  must  always 
look  beyond  his   product  to  the  market  whence  comes  the 
demand  which  gives  that  product  special  value. 

3.  The  Sizes  of  Broilers  the  Market  Calls  for.— 

The  market  demand  today  is  for  broilers  of  three  sizes  : 
Small  broilers,  large  broilers,  and  squab  broilers.  The 
ordinary  small  broilers,  the  size  most  in  demand  during 


BROILERS     AND     ROASTERS.  5 

the  greater  part 'of  the  year  weigh,  when  dressed,  plucked, 
but  undrawn,  and  with  head  and  feet  on,  from  two  to 
two  and  one-half  pounds  to  the  pair.  They  may  weigh 
less  or  more,  but  this  is  the  desirable  range  of  weights ; 
that  is,  a  pound  to  a  pound  and  a  quarter  apiece. 

The  desirable  average  weights  for  large  broilers  are 
three  to  three  and  one-half  pounds  to  the  pair ;  that  is,  a 
pound  and  a  half  to  a  pound  and  three-quarters  apiece. 
They  may  go  two  pounds  or  more  each,  but  when  the 
desirable  weights  are  exceeded  they  will  not,  as  a  rule, 
bring  as  high  prices  per  pound,  so  that  there  is  seldom 
gain,  and  may  often  be  loss,  by  marketing  these  larger 
chickens  as  broilers. 

Squab  broilers  have  been  in  general  demand  for  only  a 
few  years.  They  are  small  broilers  weighing  a  pound  and 
a  half  to  two  pounds  to  the  pair,  three-quarters  of  a  pound 
to  a.  pound  each.  The  demand  for  them  is  mostly  confined 
to  the  latter  half  of  the  winter.  The  call  for  squab 
broilers  seems  to  have  begun  with  the  willingness  of 
caterers  who  found  it  difficult  to  get  suitable  game  for 
banquets  and  like  occasions  to  use  broilers  smaller  than 
had  previously  been  considered  fit  for  the  table,  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  game.  It  is  worth ,  recording,  as  an  item  of 
interest  to  those  engaged  in  producing  squab  broilers,  that 
for  some  years  the.re  was  a  good  deal  of  sentiment  preju- 
dicial to  slaughtering  chicks  at  that  tender  age  expressed. 
It  is  also  noteworthy  that  after  the  popularity  of  the  squab 
broiler  became  assured,  there  arose  for  a  little  while  some 
demand  for  still  smaller  chickens,  and  chickens  only  a  few 
weeks  old  were  served  to  epicures  in  search  of  novel 
edibles,  but  the  public  would  have  none  of  them. 


6  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

4.  Where  the  Broilers  Go. —  The  .broiler  grower 
will,  perhaps,  find  it  easier  to  conform  closely  to  market 
requirements  as  to  desirable  sizes  of  stock,  if  he  knows 
something  of  where  his  produce  finally  goes.  Generally 
the  grower  sells  to  a  dealer,  so  does  not  come  in  contact 
with  the  consumers.  The  large  buyers  of  broilers  are  the 
high  priced  hotels  and  restaurants,  the  caterers  who  pro- 
vide "swell  spreads"  for  clubs,  reunions,  etc.,  and 
wealthy  families  who  do  a  great  deal  of  entertaining.  It 
is  customary  to  serve  each  guest  with  half  a  "  broiler,"  or 
with  a  whole  "  squab  broiler,"  the  broiler  forming  but  one 
course  of  the  meal.  So  both  because  each  guest  would  eat 
but  a  small  amount  of  "  chicken,"  and  because  it  is 
economy  to  serve  the  smallest  portion  admissible,  the 
larger  broilers  are  not  readily  taken  by  this  class  of  cus- 
tomers, except  at  practically  the  same  price  as  smaller 
ones. 

For  tables  where  those  who  feel  so  disposed  may  eat 
their  fill  of  broilers  the  large  sizes  would  be  preferred.  It 
is  not  possible  to  give  an  idea  of  the  relative  proportion  of 
the  demand  for  ordinary  broilers  from  public  houses  and 
private  families,  but  the  public  houses  take  probably  nine- 
tenths  of  all  the  squab  broilers  marketed ;  and  probably  the 
greater  part  of  the  broilers  of  this  size  are  taken  for 
banquets  or  like  special  occasions.  It  is  no  uncommon 
thing  during  the  season  to  hear  of  buyers  from  city  com- 
mission honses  and  markets  scouring  the  country  in  their 
vicinity  for  squab  broilers,  and  frequently  offering  more 
for  chicks  barely  up  to  the  usual  minimum  weight  than 
the  grower  could  get  for  the  same  chicks  two  months 
later. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  7 

.  What  is  a  Roaster? —  Here  the  dictionaries 
are  hardly  up  to  date  in  their  description  of  a  roaster 
as  "an  article  or  animal  suitable  for  roasting,  espe- 
cially a  pig/'  and  in  the  various  transpositions  of  the 
words  of  that  definition  (taken  from  the  Standard 
Dictionary)  in  the  other  dictionaries.  Roasting  chickens 
are  used  so  much  more  than  roasting  pigs  that  the 
word  "  roaster"  today  probably  suggests  chicken  to  many 
times  more  people  than  think  of  little  pigs  when  they  hear 
that  word.  A  fowl  suitable  for  roasting  must  be  a  young 
fowl  about  full  grown,  but  still  soft  meated,  and  to  roast 
satisfactorily  must  be  moderately  fat.  Roasters  are 
roughly  classed  as  "  small  roasters  "  and  u  large  roasters." 
By  far  the  greatest  demand  is  for  small  roasters  weighing 
eight  to  ten  pounds  to  the  pair,  though  the  demand  for 
large  roasters  weighing  as  much  apiece  as  these  do  to  the 
pair  is  steadily  increasing.  Singular  as-  it  may  seem  the 
production  of  large  roasters  is  the  most  profitable  branch 
of  market  poultry  culture,  duck  growing  alone  excepted. 
The  reasons  for  this  will  be  discussed  elsewhere. 

6.     Broiler  Growing  as  an   Exclusive  Business. — 

Growing  broilers  on  a  large  scale  as  a  specialty  began  at 
Hammonton,  N.  J.,  nearly  twenty  years  ago.  Those  first 
engaging  in  it  there  were  mostly  men  whose  regular 
occupation  was  fruit  growing,  gardening,  or  some  such 
pursuit  which  left  them  some  months  of  comparative  leisure 
each  winter.  The  always  high  prices  for  young  chickens 
in  late  winter  and  early  spring  and  the  developments  of 
artificial  incubation  and  brooding  seem  to  have  suggested 
broiler  raising  to  some  of  these  men  as  a  possible  profitable 
occupation  for  this  period.  Many  tried  it.  Some  made 


8  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

it  pay  well ;  others  doubtless  made  claims  of  profit  that 
were  exaggerated  or  wholly  false.  The  industry  became 
so  popular  locally  that  the  fame  of  it  spread  far  and  wide. 
Many  people  went  to  Hammonton  as  the  ideal  location  for 
broiler  growing  to  locate  there  and  "get  rich  quick." 
Many  others  went  there  to  learn  the  business  and  go  and 
establish  themselves  elsewhere.  The  boom  was  overdone 
at  Hammonton.  The  inevitable  reaction  came,  and  for  a 
time  interest  in  broiler  growing  languished  there,  but  the 
special  adaptability  of  this  occupation  as  an  adjunct  to  the 
fruit  and  garden  interests  of  that  locality  kept  many  inter- 
ested, and  though  with  the  development  of  broiler  culture 
elsewhere  the  town  has  lost  much  of  its  prestige  as  the 
broiler  town,  it  is  doubtless  true  as  is  sometimes  stated,  that 
more  broilers  are  produced  there  now  each  year  than  when 
jthe  boom  there  was  at  its  height. 

One  immediate  result  of  the  boom  at  Hammonton  was 
the  building  of  large  broiler  plants  in  many  other  places. 
Anyone  familiar  with  the  current  poultry  literature  of  the 
last  fifteen  years  can  recall  the  names  of  a  number  of  such 
plants  which  have  been  built  and  equipped  at  large 
^expense,  and  extensively  advertised  as  successful  and  net- 
rting  very  substantial  profits  each  year  until  the  owners' 
cash,  credit  or  courage  failed,  and  the  abandonment  of  the 
•project  or  a  change  to  other  lines  of  poultry  culture  came 
as  a  virtual  confession  of  the  untruth  of  the  statements 
given  out  while  the  plant  was  in  operation. 

It  is  a  matter  of  first  importance  to  those  who  may 
become  interested  in  this  subject  to  get  the  facts  in  regard 
to  broiler  culture  as  an  exclusive  industry,  and  not  to  allo\v 
themselves  to  be  deceived  by  contrary  claims  which  may  be 
made  for  plants  still  in  operation.  Scores  of  such  plants 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  9 

have  been  established,  many  of  them  on  a  large  scale  and 
with  practically  unlimited  capital  to  back  them.  The  total 
sum  sunk  in  such  investments  in  the  last  fifteen  years  is 
enormous,  but  there  is  not,  so  far  as  the  writer  is  able  to 
learn,  today  existing  anywhere  a  single  successful 
exclusive  broiler  plant.  It  is  necessary  to  emphasize 
this  fact,  because  through  statements  in  old  books  and 
papers  as  well  as  through  sensational  stories  which  owners 
of  new  plants  and  not  over-well  informed  or  over-scru- 
pulous writers  and  publishers  from  time  to  time  give  out, 
many  people  are  deceived  into  investing  capital  in  an 
undertaking  which  as  an  exclusive  specialty  cannot  by  any 
possibility  prove  profitable  under  present  conditions  of 
demand  and  supply. 

A  brief  statement  of  the  reasons  for  this  will  enable  the 
reader  to  guard  against  being  misled  by  stories  of  great 
success  with  broilers  as  an  exclusive  specialty. 

Making  a  specialty  of  broilers  will  give  a  "  living 
profit,"  that  is,  a  profit  which  gives  the  grower  compen- 
sation appropriate  to  the  amount  of  the  permanent  invest- 
ment and  to  his  skill  and  labor,  only  for  those  broilers  sold 
during  the  period  of  high  prices,  and  the  profits  for  broil- 
ers marketable  during  this  period  are  not  great  enough  to 
offset  low  profits  at  other  times. 

The  great  bulk  of  the  broilers  which  come  to  market 
come  from  the  general  farms  and  from  egg  farms,  and 
from  the  time  these  begin  to  be  received  in  quantity  until 
toward  the  end  of  the  summer  the  market  is  amply  sup- 
plied from  these  sources.  Indeed  they  would  during 
several  months  be  a  drug  on  the  market  were  not  the  sit- 
uation relieved  by  putting  thousands  of  tons  of  the  best 
into  cold  storage  to  be  held  until  arrivals  of  fresh  stock 


10  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

cease  coming,  or  to  be  worked  out  at  any  time  the  demand 
indicates  a  profit  atisfactory  to  the  speculators  who  handle 
them.  The  cold  storage  supply  as  long  as  it  lasts  has  a 
tendency  to  keep  down  prices  on  the  new  crop  of  broilers, 
so  that  between  the  advance  of  the  beginning  of  the  season 
of  good  supply  of  broilers  from  the  farms,  and  the  exten- 
sion of  the  period  in  which  this  supply  of  broilers  is  avail- 
able by  putting  the  daily  surpluses  into  cold  storage  to  be 
sold  later,  the  season  of  attractive  prices  for  the  broiler 
specialist  has  been  somewhat  shortened,  and  is  now  so 
short  that  among  those  acquainted  with  the  situation  it  is 
universally  recognized  as  the  fact  that  the  profitable  way 
to  produce  broilers  is  to  make  broiler  growing  one  of  the 
lines  of  a  general  poultry  business. 

7.  Broiler  Growing  as  a  Feature  of  a  General 
Poultry  Business.  —  When  conducted  in  this  way  broiler 
growing  is  profitable.  This  does  not  mean  that  it  invari- 
ably pays  a  profit,  or  that  anyone  can  make  it  pay.  The 
broiler  grower  must  understand  his  business,  and  there 
will  be  lean  as  well  as  fat  years ;  but  taking  one  season 
with  another  one  who  is  fairly  expert  will  make  enough 
on  what  broilers  he  can  produce  and  market  during  the 
period  of  high  prices  to  make  him  feel  satisfied  with  results 
of  his  work  in  this  line.  It  fits  into  a  time  when  unless 
one  who  has  the  equipment  for  artificial  hatching  and 
brooding  is  growing  roasters,  that  equipment  would  be 
idle,  and  it  works  into  a  general  business  rather  better  than 
the  growing  of  large  roasters,  because  the  broiler  grower 
can  have  his  broilers  practically  all  out  of  the  way  before 
beginning  to  hatch  for  stock  purposes  or  to  produce  pullets 
for  egg  farming.  Growing  broilers  in  this  way  is  worth 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  1 1 

the  attention  of  anyone    who   has   the  equipment  and  can 
spare  the  time. 

8.  Growing  Soft  Roasters  as  an  Exclusive 
Industry.  — As  has  already  been  stated  there  is  probably 
no  branch  of  the  production  of  market  poultry  products  T 
except  duck  growing,  that  pays  better  than  this.  In  what 
is  known  as  the  u  South  Shore  "  district  of  eastern  Massa- 
chusetts, the  country  about  the  towns  of  Norwell  and  Ran- 
dolph, the  production  of  soft  roasters  engages  the  attention 
of  a  great  many  people.  A  considerable  proportion  of 
them  make  it  an  exclusive  business,  and  perhaps  the 
majority  of  those  interested  in  it  limit  their  attention  ta 
poultry  to  this  one  feature. 

It  is  fortunate  for  those  established  in  the  business  that 
the  conditions  under  which  it  is  carried  on  discourage 
attempts  of  people  without  either  experience  or  capital  to 
engage  in  it.  The  equipment  required  to  grow  roasters  on1 
a  large  scale  is  not  to  be  put  in  for  a  few  hundred  dollars. 
The  income  comes  almost  wholly  in  about  two  months  irr 
early  summer.  During  the  remainder  of  the  year  expenses 
are  constant  and  sometimes  heavy.  A  man  must  either 
have  capital  enough  to  go  through  most  of  the  year  with- 
out drawing  money  out  of  the  business  for  current  or 
living  expenses,  or  must  have  a  reputation  as  a  grower 
that  will  enable  him  to  get  the  backing  or  credit  he  needs- 
to  carry  his  crop  of  roasters  until  ready  for  market.  If  it 
were  possible  to  make  a  beginning  with  as  little  capital  a& 
is  often  used  for  a  start  in  other  lines  of  poultry  culture,  or 
if  there  was  any  prospect  of  realizing  a  steady  income 
there  would  be  many  tempted  to  go  into  the  business  every 
year.  As  it  is  a  good  many  people  go  into  it  who  ought 


12  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

to  stay  out,  and  in  communities  where  growers  sure  of 
their  position  go  steadily  on  year  after  year  there  is  always 
A  liberal  sprinkling  of  newcomers  who  will  hardly  last  a 
season,  with  here  and  there  one  who  achieves  a  success 
which  transfers  him  to  the  class  of  experts.  » 

9.  Growing    Soft     Roasters    as    an    Adjunct    to 
Other    Occupation. —  In    the    communities    referred    to 
above   there    are  besides  the  successful  and  experimental 
plants  which  engage  the  time  and  attention  of  one  or  more 
men,  many  people  who  have  time  and  facilities  to  grow  a 
few  hundred  roasters  annually,  and  who,  living  where  the 
methods  and  profitableness  of  this  line  of  work  are  well 
understood,  take  to  it  naturally.      Some  of  them  are  strik- 
ingly successful,  easily   making  additions  to  their   regular 
incomes   so  substantial  that  within  a  few  years   they  have 
given  up  other  occupation,  and  are  engaged  exclusively  in 
growing  roasters.     Some,  as  it  is  to  be  expected,  fail  and 
quit    in    discouragement.       Others,    probably   the    greater 
number,  make  enough  to  satisfy  them,  and  continue  grow- 
ing roasters    as    a    side  ime  on  such  scale  as  their  other 
engagements  permit. 

10.  Growing  Roasters  as  a  Feature  in  a  General 
Poultry  Business.    -It  is   in  this   way  that  most  of  the 
small  roasters  are  produced.     They  come  from   the  yards 
of  breeders,  from  egg  farms,  and  from  the  general  farms. 
They  are   for  the  most  part  the  surplus  cockerels  of  the 
general  purpose  breeds    raised    and  handled  in  the  usual 
way,  and  marketed  just  as  they  approach  sexual  maturity. 
Considering  the  circumstances  of  their  production,    they 
might  be  considered  as  a  by-product  rather  than  a  specialty 
with  their  growers,  though  the  profit   in  them,  if  they  fill 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  13 

the  demands  of  the  best  market,  and  are  marketable  at  the 
right  time,  is  good  enough  to  make  it  worth  while  for 
those  producing  them  to  pay  more  attention  to  these  points,, 
and  perhaps  to  make  such  changes  in  their  general  stock 
and  system  as  will  give  them  the  most  profitable  by-product 
of  soft  roasters. 

11.  Combining  Broilers  and  Roasters. — This  com- 
bination does  not  appeal  much  to  the  large  roaster 
specialist  who  had  demonstrated  to  his  own  satisfaction 
that  for  one  who  is  able  to  carry  his  stock  through  to 
roaster  size  the  best  prices  paid  for  broilers  are  no  tempta- 
tion to  dispose  of  growing  stock  at  the  broiler  season. 
The  grower  of  large  roasters  considers  that  his  work  is 
practically  done,  that  all  ordinary  risks  are  over  when  the 
chicken  has  reached  broiler  size,  and  nothing  more 
remains  but  to  keep  it  supplied  with  feed,  keep  the  pullets 
if  possible  from  laying,  and  hope  that  the  proportion  of 
caponized  cockerels  that  develop  intcT slips  will  be  small. 
The  end  and  aim  of  all  his  plans  and  work  is  to  have  as 
many  large  roasters  as  possible  ready  to  market  at  the 
height  of  the  season.  With  the  broiler  grower  it  is  differ- 
ent. Many  times  he  is  in  doubt  as  to  whether  to  market  a 
particular  lot  of  chicks  as  broilers,  or  hold  them  to  sell  as 
roasters,  and  many  times  he  inclines  to  hold  them,  or 
would  if  he  could  handle  them  to  advantage  without  inter- 
fering with  his  other  departments.  A  lack  of  knowledge 
of  the  easy  and  economical  methods  which  prevail  in  the 
"  soft  roaster"  section  has  no  doubt  kept  many  from  hold- 
ing chicks  for  roasters  which  would  have  been  far  more 
profitable  if  so  handled.  Then  the  ease  of  handling 
roasters,  with  the  proper  facilities,  is  such  that  it  would 
be  a  comparatively  simple  matter  for  many  a  poultryman 


14  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

who  gives  some  attention  to  the  production  of  broilers,  to» 
grow  a  nice  lot  of  roasters  each  season  without  adding 
much  to  his  labors,  or  encroaching  on  his  other  stock. 
These  things,  mentioned  in  a  general  way  in  this  pre- 
liminary chapter  will  be  discussed  in  more  detail  in  the 
appropriate  connection  in  subsequent  chapters. 

12.  How  About  the  Demand  for  and  the  Supply 
of  these  Classes  of  Table  Poultry? — Notwithstand- 
ing occasional  brief  periods  of  overloaded  markets,  it  may 
be  truthfully  said  that  the  supply  of  extra  choice  table 
poultry,  and  even  of  ordinary  good  table  poultry,  is  not 
adequate  to  meet  the  demand.  We  have  to  take  the  situ- 
ation at  large  to  determine  a  point  of  this  kind,  and  we 
have  also  to  consider  the  ranges  and  apparent  tendencies 
of  prices.  For  several  years  now  all  poultry  of  good 
grades  has  been  higher  than  usual  in  the  large  centers  of 
population,  and  no  grounds  for  anticipating  an  early  or 
considerable  reduction  of  values  exist.  It  is  clear  to  any 
student  of  market  conditions  that  the  demand  increases 
faster  than  the  supply  increases,  or  is  at  all  likely  to 
increase,  until  facilities  for  instruction  and  training  in 
poultry  culture  are  much  more  efficient  than  at  present. 
No  prospective  poultry  grower  need  worry  about  the 
supply  exceeding  the  demand,  and  leaving  him  without  a 
satisfactory  market  for  his  products.  What  he  needs  to 
concern  himself  most  about  is  to  fit  himself  to  produce 
good  goods  economically.  When  he  can  do  that  he  can 
live  comfortably  through  the  period  of  reaction  from  a 
boom  —  if  boom  there  should  be  ;  but  there  are  at  present 
no  indications  of  a  production  that  would  glut  the  market 
for  more  than  a  very  brief  period. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


CHAPTER    II. 


The  Best  Kinds  of  Stock  and  the  Adapt- 
ability of  Different  Breeds  to  These 
Special  Purposes. 


13.  Points  of  a  Good  Broiler.  — The  ideal  broiler  is 
a  plump,  rather  fine  boned  bird,  meaty  in  every  section. 
In  most  American  markets  a  yellow  skinned,  yellow  legged 
bird  is  preferred,  and  it  is  therefore  policy  for  anyone  pro- 
ducing large  numbers  of  broilers  to  use  yellow  skinned 
stock.  In  the  best  markets — the  markets  where  prices 
are  best  —  however,  the  color  of  skin  and  legs  is  not  of  so 
much  importance  as  good  quality  of  meat.  To  explain 
this  fully  it  should  be  said  that  while  a  buyer  in,  say,  Bos- 
ton, would  take  a  lot  of  yellow  skinned  broilers  in  prefer- 
ence to  a  lot  of  white  skinned  and  white  or  black  legged 
broilers,  he  generally  would  not  object  to  a  few  chicks  that 
were  not  yellow  skinned  in  a  lot  which  was  on  the  whole 
satisfactory  in  color ;  while  in  case  the  yellow  skinned  lot 
were  of  inferior  quality  he  would  probably  give  the  other 
the  preference.  This  point  is  one  which  need  not  give 
much  concern  to  the  grower,  for  not  more  than  one  or  two 
in  a  hundred  poultry  keepers  are  likely  to  have  a  larger 
proportion  of  chicks  of  undesirable  color  characteristics. 


i6 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


Barred   Plymouth   Rocks. 

than  will  be  readily  taken  by  the  market.  Where  growers 
fail  often'est  is  in  the  use  of  breeding  stock  not  capable  of 
producing  really  good  broilers  and  in  loss  of  quality  of 
meat  through  slow  growth  of  chicks. 

What  has  been  said  of  color  should  be  qualified  with 
reference  to  squab  broilers.  Black  or  dark  feathered 
chickens  when  killed  for  squab  broilers  have  a  blueness  of 
the  skin  on  some  parts  of  trie  carcass  which  disappears  as 
they  grow  older,  but  which  at  this  stage  renders  it  very 
uninviting  in  appearance. 

A  chick  with  black  or  dark  pinfeathers,  while  it  may  be 
dressed  clean  when  of  a  pound  to  two  pounds  weight  is 
more  difficult  to  make  attractive  looking  than  a  chick  with 
white  or  buff  plumage  in  which  the  pinfeathers  need  not 


BROILERS     AND     ROASTERS. 


be  so  carefully  removed.  So  the  grower  after  some  experi- 
ence in  dressing  is  apt  to  give  the  preference  to  stock  which 
gives  him  no  dark  pinfeathers. 

The  stickler  for  the  whole  truth  and  for  absolutely  clean 
picking  may  affirm 
that  all  stubs  ought  to 
be  removed  before  the 
chick  is  eaten.  Some 
even  go  so  far  as  to 
say  they  prefer  the 
dark  pinfeathers,  be- 
cause then  when  a  car- 
cass looks  clean  they 
know  that  all  stubs 
have  been  removed . 
Such  considerations 
are  not  likely  to  ap- 
peal to  the  grower* 
who  makes  part  of  his 

living     from    broilers.  White   plymouth    Rock    Hen. 

To  the  consumer  what  looks  clean  is  clean,  and  the  grower 
finds  it  to  his  interest  to  grow  the  kind  of  chicks  that  are 
easiest  to  make  look  clean. 

14.  Kind  of  Stock  From  Which  to  Hatch  Chicks 
for  Broilers.  —  It  is  quite  customary,  even  among  poul- 
trymen  making  a  good  deal  of  a  specialty  of  broiler  grow- 
ing, to  consider  stock  not  especially  fit  for  any  other  breed- 
ing purpose  good  enough  for  the  production  of  broilers. 
That  this  is  wrong  must  be  clear  to  anyone  who  gives  the 
subject  a  moment's  reflection.  To  get  good  broilers, 
chicks  that  have  the  desired  conformation  and  grow 


i8 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 


rapidly,  you  must  use  for  the  parent  stock  birds  of  good 
development  and  vigor  that  were  themselves  quick  growers. 
Very  much  of  the  unsatisfactory  results  in  broiler  growing 
are  directly  traceable  to  the  use  of  unsuitable  breeding 
stock.  It  is  not  necessary  that  there  should  be  perfection 
or  even  excellence  (from  the  fancier's  standpoint)  in  color 
of  the  breeding  birds  selected.  A  white  fowl  though  so 

liberally  sprinkled 
with  black  ticking 
that  a  fancier  would 
promptly  reject  it  for 
any  of  his  own  pur- 
poses might  be  an 
excellent  fowl  for  the 
production  of  broilers 
if  good  in  shape  and 
vigorous.  It  might 
have  a  poor  comb, 
or  discolored  ear- 
lobes,  or  any  one  or 
more  of  numerous 
superficial  faults  that 
might  be  mentioned, 
yet  be  just  as  good 

Buff    Plymouth    Rock    Cock.  for  fne  production    of 

broilers  as  though  perfect  in  every  one  of  these  respects. 
But  if  it  is  narrow,  or  shallow  bodied,  or  lacking  in 
breadth  or  depth  of  breast,  or  too  long  in  neck,  body 
and  legs  to  be  symmetrical ;  if  it  is  in  any  way  deformed 
—  crooked  breasted,  crooked  backed,  wry  tailed,  knock 
kneed  —  it  should  be  rejected,  for  such  blemishes  make 
poor  and  unsightly  carcasses. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


15.  Points  of  a  Good  Roaster. —  The  ideal  roaster 
might  be  described  in  almost  the  same  words  as  used  in 
the  general  description  of  the  ideal  broiler,  but  to  complete 
the  description  in  terms  which  will  indicate  the  differences 
(besides  difference  in  size)  between  them,  we  must  say 
that  greater  length  of  body  and  breast  is  desirable  in  a 
roaster  than  is  found  in  stock  making  the  nicest  looking 
broilers,  and  that 
the  carcass  of  the 
roaster  should  show 
in  every  section  a 
fuller  rotundity  — 
more  mature  devel- 
opment—  than  the 
broiler.  Yellow 
skin  and  legs  are,  if 
anything,  more  gen- 
erally demanded  in 
roasters  than  in 
broilers,  but  the 
color  of  the  feathers 
is  of  less  impor- 
tance, for  the  birds 
generally  being 
dressed  when  well  grown,  are  at  that  stage  comparatively 
free  from  pinfeathers. 


Buff    Wyandotte    Hen. 


16.  Kind  of  Stock  From  Which  to  Hatch  Chicks 
for  Roasters. —  For  small  roasters  quick  growing  stock  is 
to  be  preferred ;  for  large  roasters,  slow  maturing  stock, 
which  remains  soft  meated  until  nearly  full  grown,  is 
found  most  satisfactory  by  the  growers  who  plan  to  have 


20 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 


their  stock  marketable  when  prices  are  highest.  The  reason 
for  this  is  the  difficulty  experienced  in  hatching  chicks  in 
mid-winter.  If  all  chicks  needed  for  the  best  large  roaster 

trade  could  be 
hatched  at  that 
time,  a  single 
kind  o  f  stock 
,*-  could  easily  be 
used  to  produce 
both  small  and 
large  roasters. 
The  same  stock 
might  not  pro- 
duce the  best  of 
both  sizes,  but 
the  grower  could 
use  it  to  good 
advantage  for 
White  Wyandotte  Cock.  both  demands  by 

grading  dressed  poultry  according  to  size,  or  by  selling  a 
lot  as  small  roasters,  or  holding  it  to  make  large  roasters, 
as  seemed  in  each  particular  case  most  profitable.  There 
is,  of  course,  more  or  less  of  this  done,  but  the  growers 
who  make  a  specialty  of  large  roasters  find  that  to  get  out 
what  chicks  they  need  —  to  make  sure  of  them  —  they 
must  begin  hatching  in  the  fall,  and  use  stock  that  matures 
slowly,  as  Asiatics,  or  the  larger  and  slower  maturing 
specimens  of  the  American  breeds. 

17.  Using  Mixed  or  Mongrel  Stock  to  Produce 
Market  Poultry. —  If  stock  that  is  not  thoroughbred 
answers  the  description  given  for  stock  for  the  production 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 


of  broilers  and  roasters  there  is  no  good  reason  why  it 
should  not  be  used.  Stock  that  fills  those  requirements  is, 
as  a  rule,  pretty  well  bred,  though  not  pure  in  blood.  It 
certainly  would  be  preferable  to  pure  bred  stock  which  did 
not  fulfill  the  requirements.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  such 
pure  bred  stock ;  in  fact,  the  greater  number  of  specimens 
in  the  average  flock  of  thoroughbred  fowls  would  be 
unhesitatingly  rejected  by  any  grower  alive  to  the  impor- 
tance of  using  breeding  stock  of  the  type  he  desired  to 
reproduce  in  his  market  poultry.  But  while  it  is  said  that 
the  breeder  should,  in  his  selection,  be  governed  by  the 
characteristics  of  the 
fowls  rather  than  by 
their  alleged  pedigree, 
or  want  of  definite 
pedigree,  it  must  also 
be  said  that  one  is 
much  more  likely  to 
find  what  he  wants  in 
thoroughbreds  of  the 
popular  varieties,  and 
if  he  cannot  find  what 
he  wants,  and  has  to 
develop  it,  he  will 
attain  his  object  much 
more  rapidly  by  using 
thoroughbred  stock. 


There    is,    of    course. 


White    Wyandotte    Pullet. 


plenty  of  good  stock  excellently  suited  to  the  needs  of  the 
market  poultry  grower  in  the  country,  but  the  man  who 
wants  it  does  not  always  succeed  in  getting  it,  while  the 
fanciers'  lack  of  knowledge  of  just  what  is  needed,  or  the 


22 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


disposition  to  work  off  on  the  ''practical"  grower  any- 
thing he  will  not  positively  refuse  to  take,  sometimes 
makes  it  very  difficult  for  a  market  poultry  grower  to 
deal  with  them. 

18.  Should  Broiler  and  Roaster  Growers  "Make" 
Their  Own  Eggs  for  Hatching?  —  Most  of  those  grow- 
ing them  in  large  numbers  either  do  not,  or  produce  only  a 

—^~  r-  -g^     part     of    what      they 

' 


part 

need.  The  practical 
difficulty  in  the  way 
of  a  grower  providing 
the  eggs  needed  to 
hatch  out  a  large  num- 
ber of  chicks  in  winter 
is  that  it  would  require 
SQ  large  a  stock  of  lay- 
ing hens  to  produce 
the  eggs  needed  that 
the  grower  cannot 
handle  both  branches 

Lf^p8  of  the  business.     The 

________  -      '   •  ••'      .  _j    soft    roaster     growers 

R.  C.  Rhode  Island  Red  Cockerel.  have  until  very  re- 
cently produced  practically  none  of  the  eggs  they  used. 
Within  a  few  years  many  of  them  have  begun  to  build  up 
stocks  of  breeding  fowls  from  which  to  produce  their  own 
eggs,  but  there  are  few,  if  any,  that  do  not  still  buy  the 
most  of  the  eggs  they  use.  These  eggs  are  bought  from 
farmers  throughout  the  vicinity.  The  large  and  steady 
demand  for  eggs  for  this  purpose  at  a  price  considerably  in 
advance  of  regular  market  prices  is  a  strong  inducement  to 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 


farmers  to  keep  stock  of  the  kind  the  growers  want,  and  to 
make  every  effort  to  have  eggs  in  abundance  and  of  good 
fertility  at  the  time  the  growers  want  them.  The  success 
of  those  from  whom  he  buys  eggs  in  getting  good  fertility 
is  an  important  fac- 
tor in  the  success  of 
the  grower  each  sea- 
son, and  the  utter 
inadequacv  of  the 
supply  of  eggs  for 
those  who  want  to 
grow  soft  roasters 
keeps  a  good  many 
out  of  the  business. 
A  great  many  peo- 
ple going  into  the 
production  of  broil- 
ers buy  eggs  wher- 
ever they  can  get 
them.  Though 
sometimes  very  sat- 
isfactory hatches  are 
obtained  from  such  eggs,  the  general  results  under  such 
conditions  are  so  far  from  satisfactory  that  it  is  well  for 
one  contemplating  broiler  growing  to  make  sure  of  a  suffi- 
cient supply  of  eggs  before  he  goes  very  far  with  his  plans. 
If  he  keeps  fowls  himself  he  should  know  what  he  could 
reasonably  expect  to  get  from  his  own  stock.  In  nearly 
every  community  there  are  a  few  people  with  a  reputa- 
tion for  getting  eggs  at  all  seasons.  These  are  the  people 
to  look  up  and  contract  with  for  the  eggs  one  must  buy. 
When  either  of  the  specialties  we  are  discussing  is  run  as  a 


5.    C.    Rhode    Island    Red    Hen. 

By  Courtesy  of  F.  D.  Kead. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


branch  of  a  poultry 
business  the  propo- 
sition is  somewhat 
different.  In  such 
cases  the  general  way 
is  to  adapt  the  plans 
for  growing  market 
poultry  to  the  re- 
sources of  the  plant. 

19.  Adaptability 
of  Different  Breeds 
for  Broiler  and 
Roaster  Growing. 

-  Plymouth    Rocks, 
W  y  a  n  d  o  1 1  e  s    and 
Rhode  Island    Reds, 
Light   Brahma   Cock.  comprising  the  popu- 

lar varieties  of  what  is  known  as  the  "  American  class" 
of  fowls  are  best  suited  to  fill  the  bill  of  requirements  for 
a  fowl  for  producing  both  broilers  and  roasters.  For  the 
Canadian  markets  the  Orpingtons,  fowls  of  the  same  gen- 
eral type,  but  having  flesh  colored  legs  and  white  skin  are 
generally  preferred.  Fowls  of  this  size  and  type  give 
plump  broilers  at  any  age,  and  good  small  roasters,  while 
in  all  these  breeds,  but  especially  in  the  Plymouth  Rocks, 
there  are  many  stocks  from  which  large  roasters  rivaling 
the  Asiatics  in  size  can  be  produced.  In  considering  the 
•question  of  breed  or  variety  the  reader  should  bear  in  mind 
that  in  discussing  the  varieties  I  refer  to  the  characteris- 
tics of  good  typical  specimens.  The  question  of  color  of 
plumage  was  considered  in  ^  13  and  14. 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS.  2$ 

For  large  roasters  the  Asiatics,  and  especially  the  Light 
Brahmas,  have  the  preeminence,  the  Brahmas  being  used 
almost  to  the  exclusion  of  other  breeds  in  the  great  soft 
roaster  section.  The  Light  Brahma  used  here  is  not  as  a 
rule  quite  up  to  standard  size  and  weight ;  but  as  good 
average  weight  Brahmas  for  breeding  purposes  are  always 
in  demand  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  general  use  of  the 
smaller  birds  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  are  more  abundant 
rather  than  to  their  being  more  desirable.  Indeed  growers 
in  that  section  say  that  the  market  demand  for  large  birds 
is  steadily  increasing.  Chicks  of  the  Asiatic  breeds  do 
not  as  a  rule  make  satisfactory  broilers,  but  by  a  selection 
of  stock  of  a  plump  and  rather  blocky  type  for  breeding 
purposes  one  can  get  broilers  from  Asiatics  that  cannot  be 
excelled. 

The  Mediterranean, 
Polish,  and  Hamburg 
breeds  are  rarely  con- 
sidered in  treating  of 
table  poultry.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  and 
speaking  of  the  ordi- 
nary stocks  of  these 
varieties,  for  which, 
with  the  exception  of 
the  Minorca,  there  are 
no  standards  of  weight 
required,  each  one  of 
them  lacks  in  one  or 
more  feature  desirable 
i  n  market  poultry.  LIght  Brahma  Hen> 


26  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

None  of  them  but  the  Leghorns  have  the  color  of  legs 
and  skin  almost  universally  demanded.  In  Leghorns, 
though  the  average  stock  is  too  small,  there  are  many 
stocks  of  Leghorns  of  good  size  which  will  produce 
excellent  broilers  and  small  roasters.  Indeed,  I  have 
had  broilers  from  heavy  bodied  good  sized  Leghorns 
that  grew  faster  than  Plymouth  Rock  chicks  under  the 
same  conditions  make  as  nice  looking  broilers  as  I  have 
ever  seen,  and  were  equal  to  any  in  quality.  Such 
Leghorn  stock  is  not  common,  however,  and  the  most 
that  can  be  said  of  the  use  of  Leghorns  for  market  poultry 
is  that  the  largest  types  generally  found  make  broilers  that 
are  fair  as  compared  with  those  produced  from  average 
good  Plymouth  Rock  and  Wyandotte  stock,  while  the 
largest  and  slowest  maturing  cockerels,  if  killed  before 
their  meat  becomes  hard,  make  very  nice  small  roasters. 
Pullets  of  similar  characteristics  would  also  make  nice 
small  roasters,  but  the  demand  for  them  as  layers  is  such 
that  they  are  almost  invariably  reserved  for  that  purpose. 


BROILERS     AND     ROASTERS.  27 


CHAPTER     III. 


Location. —  Land. —  Methods   in    General, 


20.  Location. — The  question  of  location  presents  itself 
to  a  person  interested  in  the  production  of  market  poultry 
in  one  of  two  forms.  If  he  is  already  established  in  a  place 
the  question  is  :  What  branches  of  market  poultry  culture 
can  be  adapted  to  his  circumstances ;  or  if  he  desires  to  try 
a  special  branch,  whether  that  branch  can  be  pursued  to 
advantage  by  one  situated  as  he  is.  If  he  is  free  to  locate 
himself  in  the  place  which  seems  best  adapted  to  the  line 
of  work  he  proposes  to  follow,  the  question  is  to  find  such 
places  and  to  select  that  which  offers  most  advantages. 

If  either  broilers  or  roasters  are  to  be  produced  in  con- 
siderable quantities,  they  can  be  sold  to  advantage  only 
where  there  are  considerable  numbers  of  people  who  are 
not  obliged  to  figure  living  expenses  closely,  who  can  and 
will  buy  what  they  want  with  little  regard  to  price.  As  a 
rule  this  class  is  not  numerous  outside  of  the  large  cities- 
and  their  suburbs,  except  at  health  and  pleasure  resorts. 
The  large  cities  give  an  all  year  round  market  for  choice 
grades  of  market  poultry.  Resorts  of  the  classes  mentioned 
furnish  excellent  markets  during  their  seasons.  In  all  of 


28'  BROILERS     AND     ROASTERS. 

these  places  the  demand  is  on  the  whole  so  much  greater 
than  the  supply  that  so  far  as  the  individual  producer  is 
concerned  it  is  practically  unlimited.  The  poultry  man 
near  such  a  market,  or  having  shipping  facilities  which 
bring  such  a  market  near  him,  may  plan  for  as  large  a 
product  as  he  can  handle  without  fear  that  his  produce 
\\ill  prove  unsalable,  or  salable  only  at  a  figure  which 
leaves  him  little  profit. 

One  who  cannot  reach  such  a  market  handily  may  still 
find  it  profitable  to  produce  market  poultry  of  different 
kinds  to  suit  his  local  demand,  which,  though  limited,  is 
iipt  to  be  good  in  any  prosperous  town  as  long  as  produc- 
tion is  in  proper  ratio  to  the  demand.  The  grower  who 
lias  access%to  large  markets  may  find  it  to  his  advantage  to 
make  a  specialty  of  some  one  kind  of  market  poultry,  or 
at  appropriate  seasons  to  produce  as  much  of  certain  kinds 
as  he  can,  but  the  poultryman  who  is  dependent  on  a  small 
market  must  nearly  always  produce  a  little  of  each  of  the 
different  kinds  of  poultry  required  for  the  best  class  of 
trade. 

In  selecting  a  location  for  a  roaster  plant,  or  for  a  plant 
to  be  devoted  largely  to  broiler  production,  one  must  get 
near  a  large  market,  that  is,  within  easy  shipping  distance 
of  it,  and,  if  possible,  he  should  try  to  locate  where  there 
are  others  interested  in  the  same  special  line  of  work. 
Where  the  market  is  limited,  one  must  avoid  competition ; 
but  where  the  demand  is  so  good  that  there  is  no  competition 
between  producers,  except  the  natural  rivalry  to  excel,  one 
can  have  all  the  advantages  of  proximity  to  others  engaged 
in  the  same  business,  without  any  of  the  disadvantages  that 
sometimes  attend  such  conditions. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  29 

21.      Land — How  Much  and  What  Kind  ? —  For  the 

production  of  broilers  little  land  is  required.  During 
winter  and  early  spring  in  northerly  latitudes  a  little  strip 
in  front  of  the  brooder  house  is  all  that  can  be  used  for  the 
broilers,  and  even  this  can  be  used  only  in  favorable 
weather.  A  great  many  small  broilers  are  grown  entirely 
indoors.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  installation  of 
facilities  for  the  production  of  thousands  of  small  broilers 
would  take  only  a  small  area  of  land,  and  broiler  raising  as- 
an  adjunct  to  other  lines  of  poultry  culture,  or  as  an 
adjunct  of  some  other  business,  can  be  carried  on  for  a 
time  on  a  site  which  gives  room  only  for  the  necessary 
buildings. 

The  objection  to  establishing  a  plant  on  so  limited  a  site 
is  that  the  equipment  cannot  be  used  to  good  advantage  for 
other  purposes,  and  hence  will  stand  idle  or  be  used  with 
little  profit  during  a  considerable  part  of  each  year.  The 
broiler  season  is  a  short  season.  The  same  equipment 
used  for  early  broilers  can  also  be  used  for  summer  chick- 
ens if  there  is  land  enough  to  give  them  the  large  yards 
they  should  have.  If  one  attempts  to  run  both  winter  and 
summer  chickens  in  the  same  house  with  such  small  yards 
as  are  adequate  for  winter  conditions,  he  may  do  very  well 
for  a  few  seasons,  but  as  the  ground  becomes  tainted,  his 
chickens  cease  to  thrive,  and  usually  the  poultryman  whose 
plant  is  in  this  condition  struggles  through  several  unsatis- 
factory seasons  before  he  realizes  just  where  the  trouble 
lies. 

For  a  large  stock  of  roasters  considerable  land  is  required, 
for  the  stock  is  mostly  about  half  grown  when  spring  opens, 
and  as  it  is  not  to  be  marketed  for  several  months,  the 


30  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

grower  saves  labor  in  caring  for  his  fowls  if  he  has  land 
enough  to  spread  them  out  well.  Besides  this,  although 
the  conditions  of  growing  roasters  admit  of  planting  the 
3and  on  which  they  have  run  after  they  are  marketed,  and 
growing  late  crops  on  it,  if  the  land  is  heavily  stocked  with 
poultry  year  after  year  so  much  fertilizer  is  added  to  the 
land  that  planting  it  for  a  part  of  a  season  does  not  take 
the  manure  out  of  the  soil  fast  enough  to  keep  it  as  clean 
.as  desirable.  Growers  who  have  been  established  on  farms 
which  were  ample  as  long  as  the  land  could  take  the 
manure  almost  invariably  arrive  within,  at  most,  ten  or 
twelve  years,  at  the  point  where  they  feel  they  should  have 
land  enough  to  move  the  stock  about  more  and  give  land 
that  has  been  occupied  for  several  seasons  a  rest  for  an 
equal  period.  This  is  a  point  which  it  is  hard  to  make 
either  the  beginner  or  one  who  has  had  a  few  successful 
seasons  on  a  small  plant  appreciate  to  the  extent  of  locat- 
ing where  he  has  two  or  three  times  as  much  land  as  he  is 
likely  to  have  occasion  to  use  for  some  years  to  come. 
There  are  roaster  plants  producing 4,000  to  5,000  chickens 
£L  season  on  ten  or  twelve  acres  of  land,  but  I  do  not  think 
.any  of  the  proprietors  of  such  plants  would  start  again  on 
so  small  a  farm.  With  two,  three  or  four  times  as  much 
land  one  insures  himself  against  being  handicapped  in  the 
future  for  want  of  land  room. 

As  to  the  kind  of  land,  I  think  it  may  be  said  that  the 
day  when  land  that  was  not  fit  for  any  other  purpose  was 
considered  just  the  thing  for  poultry  is  about  gone  by.  Of 
course  no  sensible  person  would  go  to  the  vicinity  of  a 
large  city  and  buy  high  priced  garden  land  to  keep  poultry 
<on,  but  there  is  a  medium  between  land  of  that  class  and 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  31 

land  wholly  unsuitable  for  cultivation.  All  things  con- 
sidered the  most  desirable  land  for  a  poultry  farm  is  usually 
either  light  new  land  that  when  cleared  will  be  suitable  for 
tillage,  or  worn  out  tillage  land.  On  either  of  these  the 
poultry  can  be  run  much  longer  without  change  than  on  a 
rich  soil  or  one  that  has  been  for  some  time  in  a  good  state 
of  cultivation.  Such  lands  are  comparatively  low  priced, 
while  if  properly  handled  for  poultry  their  value  for  other 
purposes  may  be  so  much  increased  that  in  the  event  of 
its  becoming  desirable  for  the  poultryman  to  change  his 
location  he  can  get  a  fair  price  for  his  farm  for  farming 
purposes  ;  while  if  he  had  established  himself  on  land  as 
unsuitable  for  growing  crops  of  any  kind  as  many  of  the 
poultry  farms  are,  he  would  either  have  to  remain  there  or 
sacrifice  his  land  in  order  to  make  a  change. 

In  buying  land  for  a  poultry  farm,  then,  by  all  means 
buy  land  that  crops  can  be  grown  upon.  If  you  cannot 
farm  the  land  yourself  there  are  still"  few  places  where  it 
would  be  advisable  to  start  a  poultry  farm  where  one  could 
not  readily  rent  his  extra  land  for  at  least  enough  to  pay 
taxes  on  it  and  interest  on  the  investment  in  it,  and  when 
the  time  comes  that  he  needs  more  land  or  a  change  of 
land  for  his  poultry,  he  has  it. 

22.  Broiler  and  Roaster  Growers  Use  Artificial 
Methods. — There  are  some  growers  of  soft  roasters  grow- 
ing a  few  hundred  a  year  who  hatch  and  brood  their 
chickens  with  heqs,  getting  most  of  the  chicks  out  in  the 
fall,  but  as  a  rule  growers  of  both  broilers  and  roasters  use 
artificial  methods  of  hatching  and  brooding.  Indeed  with- 
out the  incubator  and  brooder  these  branches  of  the  busi- 
ness could  never  have  been  developed  as  they  have  been. 


32  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

We  need  not  discuss  here  whether  it  is  better  to  use  incu- 
bators and  brooders  than  to  use  hens  during  spring  and 
summer.  It  is  the  production  of  winter  chickens  that  we 
are  considering  at  present,  and  for  this  the  artificial  appli- 
ances are  indispensable,  the  exception  to  their  use  noted 
above  being  one  of  the  kind  that  proves  the  rule,  for  it  is 
practicable  only  when  operations  are  on  a  very  limited 
scale.  For  late  fall,  early  and  mid-winter  hatches  broody 
hens  cannot  be  obtained  in  sufficient  numbers  to  hatch 
chicks  on  a  large  scale.  For  later  hatches  they  may  be,, 
but  the  general  tendency  of  hens  is  to  wean  their  chicks 
early  at  that  season,  and  hence  the  hens  are  most  unreliable 
for  brooding  purposes  at  the  season  when  it  would  be  most 
desirable  that  they  should  remain  long  with  their  broods. 

Hatching  with  hens  and  brooding  artificially  are  some- 
times combined,  but  rarely  now  where  large  numbers  of 
chicks  are  produced  out  of  the  natural  season.  In  short, 
wherever  natural  methods  are  used  in  the  production  of 
broilers  and  roasters  it  is  because  the  venture  is  in  the 
nature  of  a  makeshift  until  arrangements  for  the  use  of 
artificial  methods  can  be  made. 


BROILERS     AND    ROASTERS. 


CHAPTER     IV. 


Buildings    and    Equipment. 


23.  About  Incubators. —  This  is  one  of  the  points  on 
which  one  not  familiar  with  the  work  of  the  different 
makes  of  incubators  thinks  it  would  be  to  his  advantage  to 
have  specific  advice  from  some  disinterested  person  who 
did  know  something  of  what  was  being  done  with  differ- 
ent machines.  As  an  editor  of  a  poultry  paper,  visiting 
many  poultrymeii  every  season,  and'  in  correspondence 
with  many  more,  I  am  supposed  by  a  great  many  people 
to  be  able  to  give  such  advice,  and  accused  by  some  of 
being  unwilling  to  do  so  because  recommending  one 
machine  would  result  in  the  withdrawal  of  the  advertising 
patronage  of  the  manufacturers  of  other  incubators.  A 
number  of  such  .persons  are  not  inclined  to  accept  as 
sincere  and  truthful  the  statement  I  frequently  make  in 
reply  to  such  questions,  that  I  do  not  know  which  is  the 
best  machine ;  that  as  nearly  as  I  can  judge  from  observa- 
tions and  reports  there  is  little  difference  in  the  results 
obtained  from  different  machines.  One  make  of  machine 
will  suit  one  man  better  than  any  other.  Another  man 
just  as  successful  in  hatching  will  prefer  a  different 
machine.  Many  operators  use  two  or  more  makes  of 


34  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

incubators  at  the  same  time,  and  find  so  little  difference 
between  them  that  they  have  no  preference.  One  of  the 
most  expert  operators  I  know  told  me  he  would  be  afraid 
to  affirm  that  any  one  incubator  would  hatch  better  than 
another,  because  a  number  of  times  in  his  experience 
when  one  season's  work  seemed  to  show  a  certain  machine 
superior  to  others  run  with  it,  the  next  season's  work 
would  entirely  change  the  relative  status  of  the  machines 
used. 

The  explanation  of  this  is  that  machines  differing  in 
principle  and  construction  sometimes  do  their  best  work 
under  quite  different  conditions.  At  one  time  the  atmos- 
pheric conditions  may  be  especially  favorable  to  one  of  two 
machines,  and  it  will  do  superior  work.  At  another  time 
conditions  may  be  such  that  another  machine  will  do 
better.  Again,  conditions  may  not  be  favorable  to  the 
best  results  possible  from  either  machine,  and  they  may 
work  about  alike. 

Some  men  are  on  the  whole  equally  successful  with 
all  the  different  machines  they  try,  others  will  be  very  suc- 
cessful with  one  or  two  kinds  of  incubators,  but  always 
unsuccessful  with  other  makes,  while  not  infrequently  we 
find  people  who  never  seem  to  acquire  the  knack  of  run- 
ning any  machine  with  satisfactory  results.  One  can  never 
tell  what  he  can  do  or  how  he  will  succeed  with  any  par- 
ticular make  of  machine  until  he  tries.  Still,  as  the  aver- 
age man  or  woman  with  any  mechanical  knack  at  all  can 
take  almost  any  incubator  and  get  fair  results  from  it,  no 
one  need  feel  that  time  and  money  spent  in  experimenting 
with  incubators  is  going  to  be  wasted.  It  is  with  incu- 
bators as  it  is  with  breeds,  with  houses,  with  methods  c.f 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  35 

feeding,  etc.  There  are  many  good  ones,  and  there  are 
also  many  people  getting  very  good  results  though  their 
equipment  and  methods  are  far  from  being  all  that  is  desir- 
able, but  however  a  person  may  begin  sooner  or  later  (if 
he  stays)  he  works  around  to  houses,  breeds,  methods, 
machines  that  suit  him. 

The  most  practical  advice  I  can  give  in  regard  to  choice 
of  an  incubator  is  to  urge  one  beginning  with  them  to  buy 
mot  more  than  one  or  two  incubators  of  medium  capacity, 
say  100  to  200  eggs  each  before  he  is  sure  he  can  run  that 
make  of  incubator  satisfactorily,  which  means  of  course, 
beginning  in  a  small  way.  That  certainly  is  how  anyone 
who  has  had  no  experience  in  artificial  incubation  should 
begin,  yet  every  year  a  great  many  people  who  have  never 
run  an  incubator  and  have  it  all  to  learn  are  equipping 
plants  on  which  they  start  with  from  five  or  six  to  fifteen 
or  twrenty  incubators,  and  while, -as  I  have  said,  the  dif- 
ferences between  incubators  as  shown  by  general  results  is 
not  considerable,  the  differences  between  operators  as 
shown  by  experiences  with  the  same  machines  are  such 
that  each  operator  wants  to  be  sure  which  machines  will 
suit  him  best  before  investing  in  many  incubators,  other- 
wise one  is  likely  to  find  himself  before  long  in  the  pre- 
dicament of  having  to  either  use  machines  with  which  he 
cannot  do  his  best  work,  or  change  machines  at  consider- 
able expense,  and  perhaps  temporary  loss. 

24.  Brooding  Systems  and  Brooders. — Much  of 
what  has  been  said  of  relative  merits  of  incubators  will 
apply  equally  to  brooders,  and  to  some  extent^to  brooding 
systems,  though  of  late  years  one  system  of  brooding  seems 


36  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

to  be  outranking  the  other  in  the  favor  of  growers  of  winter 
chickens. 

In  artificial  brooding  there  are  two  principal  systems  or 
methods — the  continuous  pipe  system  in  which  the  chick- 
ens hover  under  pipes  heated  by  hot  water  or  steam,  the 
pipes  extending  the  length  of  the  house  and  connecting 
with  one  large  heater  which  supplies  all  the  heat  required, 
and  separate  "  individual "  brooders  of  a  capacity  of  fifty 
to  one  hundred  chicks  each,  having  each  its  own  lamp  or 
stove  heater. 

In  discussing  the  merits  of  the  two  systems  it  should  be 
said  first  of  all  that  the  brooder  "  problem  "  has  not  yet 
been  brought  so  near  a  satisfactory  conclusion  as  has  the 
hatching  of  chickens  by  artificial  means.  The  two  brood- 
ing systems  have  seemed  to  alternate  in  popular  favor. 
Individual  brooders  came  first.  Then  came  the  pipe  sys- 
tem, and  for  awhile  it  was  generally  preferred.  Then 
some  great  improvements  in  individual  brooders  wrere 
made,  and  the  separate  brooder  did  so  much  more  satisfac- 
tory work,  especially  for  the  youngest  chicks,  that  many 
growers  adopted  the  plan  of  using  what  were  called  com- 
bination brooder  houses  in  which  pens  for  the  youngest 
chicks  were  fitted  with  individual  fct  nursery"  brooders, 
while  for  chicks  two  to  three  weeks  of  age  and  upward 
the  less  laborious  system  of  pipe  brooding  was  used. 
Within  the  last  year  or  two  the  sentiment  of  the  larger 
growers  seems  to  have  swung  back  to  the  pipe  system. 
This  is  no  doubt  due  to  the  improvements  made  in  it,  par- 
ticularly the  improvements  in  regulating  the  heat  by  means 
of  electric*  thermostats  and  automatic  drafts  and  damper 
adjustments  of  the  heater. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  37 

But  though  the  pipe  system  now  appears  to  have  the 
preference  with  large  operators,  the  individual  brooder  is, 
and  no  doubt  will  continue  to  be,  very  generally  used  by 
smaller  operators  and  by  those  whose  work  is  in  an  experi- 
mental stage,  because  the  first  cost  is  less,  and  it  can  often 
be  adapted  to  existing  house  arrangements  with  little  or  no 
expense,  when  to  install  a  pipe  system  would  necessitate 
remodeling  a  building.  The  individual  brooders  being 
operated  separately  can  be  put  in  any  convenient  coop, 
shed,  poultry  house  or  other  outbuilding,  one  here  and  one 
there,  an  advantage  which  appeals  to  one  who  does  not 
want  to  make  the  changes  in  or  additions  to  his  plant 
which  a  pipe  brooder  house  would  require. 

25.     Incubator  Cellars. —  Incubators  can  be,  and  are 

successfully  operated  in  all  sorts  of  places,  but  every  other 
arrangement  for  them  is  of  a  makeshift  character,  either  a 
terrrporary  arrangement,  pending  the  construction  of  an 
incubator  cellar,  or  a  substitute  for  the  special  incubator 
cellar,  when  for  good  reasons  that  cannot  be  built.  When 
only  one,  or,  at  most,  a  few  machines  are  to  be  operated, 
some  substitute  arrangement  may  be  advisable,  but  when  a 
greater  number  of  incubators  are  to  be  operated  a  room 
constructed  especially  with  reference  to  the  requirements 
of  this  .work  should  be  considered  a  necessity,  and  wher- 
ever it  is  possible  to  set  apart  an  appropriate  room  exclu- 
sively for  incubation,  though  but  a  single  machine  is  to  be 
operated,  the  several  advantages  of  so  doing  will  more 
than  repay  the  trouble  and  expense  of  making  a  special 
place  for  the  incubator. 

There  is  practical  unanimity  of  opinion  as  to  the  best 
kind  of  room  for  incubators.  A  "  cellar"  about  half 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


An    Incubator    Cellar,    Banked    to    Eaves. 

under  ground  provides  most  economically  the  conditions 
most  favorable  to  the  control  of  temperature,  and  to  keep- 
ing the  incubators  in  operation  as  far  as  possible  from  the 
effects  of  atmospheric  changes  or  other  external  influences 
which  might  affect  incubation. 

Two  illustrations  of  incubator  cellars  representing  com- 
mon plans  are  given  herewith.  These  give  external  views 
of  the  cellars.  It  hardly  seems  necessary  to  give  a  diagram 
of  the  ground  plan.  In  the  first  illustration  the  cellar,  in 
a  side  hill,  is  banked  up  quite  the  full  height  of  the  walls. 
In  the  other,  the  cellar  is  built  into  a  sort  of  natural  curve 
in  a  bank,  the  north  and  west  walls  being  wholly  below  the 
ground,  while  on  the  east  and  soifth  side's  the  level  of  the 
ground  outside  is  only  about  two  feet  above  the  cellar  floor. 
Exact  comparisons  of  the  merits  of  the  different  cellars,  as 
affected  by  the  differences  in  construction,  would  be  diffi- 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


39 


Incubator    Cellar    in    Curve    of    a    Bank. 

cult,  if  not  impossible.  Probably,  neither  in  case  of  the 
two  cellars  illustrated,  nor  in  that  of  most  of  many  others 
which,  like  them  in  general,  but  differing  in  slight  particu- 
lars, might  be  illustrated,  was  there  any  careful  and  expert 
study  and  decision  of  the  possible  effects  of  slight  devia- 
tions from  other  plans.  As  in  all  kinds  of  buildings,  many 
minor  features  depend  upon  an  undemonstrated  idea,  or 
even  a  mere  whim  of  the  builder,  and  no  marked  influ- 
ence either  for  good  or  bad  is  traceable  to  these  features. 

The  advantage  of  a  room  partly  underground  is  that  the 
temperature  in  it  changes  slowly  and  rarely  reaches  the 
extremes  of  either  heat  or  cold  which  may  prevail  outside. 
It  can  make  little  material  difference  in  this  respect, 
whether  the  walls  are  banked  half  way  up  or  a  little  more, 
or  not  evenly  banked  all  around  —  provided  there  is  not  a 
large  wall  surface  close  to  the  incubators  so  exposed  to 


40  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

external  heat  and  cold  that  its  heating  and  cooling  would 
affect  the  temperature  about  the  machines.  In  the  greater 
number  of  incubator  cellars  made  where  the  ground  is 
level  or  nearly  so,  the  cellar  is  of  such  depth  and  the  wall 
outside  banked  to  such  height  that  all  wall  surface  adja- 
cent to  incubators  is  well  protected  outside.  This  leaves 
about  two  or  two  and  a  half  feet  of  wall  above  the  ground, 
an  ample  space  for  windows  large  enough  for  both  light 
and  ventilation.  When  a  cellar  is  mostly  below  ground  it 
is  more  difficult  to  ventilate  it  properly. 

The  reader  may  have  noticed  that  in  the  second  illustra- 
tion the  roof  is  high,  leaving  room  for  a  loft  with  quite  a 
good  sized  door  above  the  line  of  the  eaves.  While  in  a 
small  cellar  where  but  few  machines  were  run,  this  feature 
might  not  be  of  great  importance,  in  a  large  cellar  where 
many  machines  are  operated,  such  a  roomy  loft  helps  the 
circulation  of  air  in  the  cellar  and  so  improves  the  ventila- 
tion both  in  the  room  and  in  the  machines. 

In  determining  the  dimensions  of  his  incubator  cellar  the 
poultry  keeper  should  consider  the  shape  as  well  as  the 
number  of  the  machines  to  be  used  in  it.  This  is  of 
importance  even  in  case  of  a  small  cellar  in  which  two 
rows  of  machines  are  to  be  placed,  one  along  each  side 
wall,  because  in  such  cases  the  limited  space  does  not 
admit  of  such  variation  in  the  placing  of  the  incubators, 
arid  sometimes  a  foot  more  one  way  or  the  other  would 
mean  a  capacity  of  two  more  machines,  or  ample  room 
instead  of  an  insufficient  passage  between  the  rows  of 
machines. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  incubator  cellars  it  will  be 
in  place  to  say  a  little  more  about  running  machines  else- 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS.  ^ 

where.  It  has  sometimes  been  claimed  by  manufacturers 
that  certain  machines  could  be  run  as  well  in  an  outbuild- 
ing as  in  a  cellar,  and  this  of  course  was  a  strong  point  in 
favor  of  such  machines  with  those  who  did  not  want  to 
put  the  machine  in  the  house  cellar  or  make  a  cellar  espe- 
cially for  it.  The  facts  about  this  matter  as  I  have  been 
able  to  get  them  from  persons  who  are  running  machines 
entirely  above  ground,  as  well  as  from  those  who  have 
tried  machines  in  cellars  and  in  buildings  above  ground 
simultaneously,  are  these :  In  a  moderate  and  equable 
climate  the  room  above  ground  may  give  as  good  results 
in  general  and  without  more  labor  than  the  cellar.  In  any 
place  where  considerable  and  sudden  changes  of  tempera- 
ture are  frequent,  the  machines  above  ground  require  much 
closer  attention  and  constant  watching  to  guard  against 
variations  in  the  temperature  of  the  egg  chamber  corre- 
sponding with  the  changes  taking  place  outside. 

26.  Pipe  Brooder  Houses. — To  attempt  even  a  brief 
description  of  the  many  plans  of  pipe  brooder  houses  that 
are  now  in  use,  and  to  present  even  in  outline  the  many 
theories  that  have  been  more  or  less  thoughtfully  worked 
into  them,  would  require  a  volume  several  times  the  size  of 
this  devoted  exclusively  to  that  one  part  of  our  subject. 
There  would,  however,  be  no  great  advantage  in  such  a 
presentation  of  this  subject.  All  the  thought  and  study 
and  experiment  of  many  men,  through  many  years,  has 
made  little  difference  in  the  houses.  I  think  we  may  say 
no  essential  difference  in  principal  features.  They  differ 
most  in  minor  points,  and  these  can  be  indicated  in  course 
of  an  account  of  one  plan,  or  as  supplementary  to  it,  just 
as  well  as  by  giving  full  descriptions  of  many  houses, 


42 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 


repeating  in  each  the  descriptions  of  similar  features.  I 
will  therefore  describe  first  a  brooder  house  which  is  one 
of  the  best  models  I  have  seen.  In  fact,  in  the  ten  years 
or  more  since  it  was  first  built  the  house  has  several  times 
been  remodeled,  and  in  its  present  form  combines  the 
results  of  years  of  experiment  supplemented  by  lessons 
from  the  experience  of  many  other  operators  of  brooder 
houses. 

If    the    reader    will    take  a  glance    at  the    cross  section 
in     the    cut     below,    at    the    ground    plan    on    page    43, 


Cross    Section    of    Brooder    House, 

At  Lone  Oak  Poultry  Farm,  Reading,  Mass. 

and  the  view  of  a  part  of  the  exterior  of  the  house  on 
page  47,  before  I  begin  to  explain  the  plan  of  the  house 
and  the  reasons  for  its  proportions,  dimensions,  and  special 
features,  he  will  better  understand  the  allusions  to  each  cut 
as  there  is  occasion  to  refer  to  it  in  describing  the  house. 

The  house  is  low  —  only  3 -ft.  high  from  the  foundation 
to  the  plate  on  the  front  or  south  side,  with  the  apex  of 
thereof  only  5  ft.  from  the  level  of  the  pen  floors.  The 
floor  of  the  passage  in  the  rear  of  the  pens  is  excavated  to 
a  depth  of  2  ft.  This  arrangement  reduces  the  amount  of 
cubic  space  in  the  house,  while  still  giving  the  operator 


BROILERS     AND     ROASTERS. 


43- 


t 

\ 

K 
C 

5        ' 

\ 

i 

1 

\  * 

L. 

/  * 

1 

<o 

"5 

/    f   * 

r. 

„ 

(     % 

1 

/ 

•a 

c 

\ 

0 

f 

\ 

/ 

\ 

c, 

\ 

• 

plenty  of  head  room  where  he 

has  to  do  his  work,  and  at  the 

same    time    makes    his    work 

easier,   because   the  pen  floors 

being  at  the  height  of  the  knee 

or  a  little    above,  he  is  saved 

a  great  deal    of    stooping,   an 

item  of    economy  in  labor  that 

does   not  amount  to    much   in 

caring  for  a  few  brooders,  but 

$    means  a  great  deal  where  many 

*2    hundreds  or  a    few   thousands 

c    of  chicks  are  grown  artificially. 

• 

*„        The  width  of    the    house    is- 
I    1 4  ft.,  the  length  of  each  pen 
%  being     10  -ft.,   and  the  inside* 
1    width  of  the  walk    3   ft.  9  in, 
jt    Each  pen  is   5   ft.  wide,  and  is 
®    lighted  by  a    half  window   (6-- 
\    lights- 9  x  12)   in  the  middle  of 
<  the  front  of  pen.     At  the  side- 
of1  this  window,  as  shown   im 
the  picture  of  the  exterior    of 
the    house,  is   the   small  open- 
ing giving    the    chicks   access 
to  the    yard    connecting   withi 
each  pen.     An    inclined    plat- 
form with  strips  of  lath  tacked: 
across  it  to    give    the    chicks 
foothold,    extends    in  front    of 
the  house-  the  full  width  of  each* 


^4  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

.pen,  thus  making  it  impossible   for  chicks  to  miss  the  way 
back  to  the  brooder. 

To  support  the  roof  and  carry  the  partitions  between  the 
pens  there  are  two  upright  pieces  of  2  x  3  inch  scantling 
;for  each  partition,  one  at  the  passage,  going  from  the  floor 
of  the  passage  to  the  apex  of  the  roof,  and  one  a  little  for- 
ward of  the  middle  of  the  house,  which  goes  from  the  floor 
of  the  pens  to  the  roof ;  a  few  inches  difference  in  the 
iposition  of  this  upright,  either  backward  or  forward,  would 
make  no  difference.  The  partitions  between  the  pens  are 
•<of  solid  boards  two  feet  high.  The  8  in.  board  extending 
£rom  the  passage  half  way  forward  is  not  a  part  of  the 
partition,  but  a  board  used  to  place  across  the  pen  to  keep 
•the  chicks  close  to  the  pipes  when  first  put  into  the  brood- 
ers. The  two  cleats  a  little  forward  of  the  short  upright 
indicate  the  position  of  this  board  when  in  use.  When  not 
in  use  it  is  kept  in  the  position  shown  in  the  diagram.  An 
•opening  with  cover  swinging  on  a  screw  at  the  top  is  used 
ito  pass  the  chicks  from  pen  to  pen  when  that  is  desired. 
In  some  houses  the  partitions  between  the  pens  are  carried 
higher  with  wire  netting,  but  most  operators  would  rather 
let  the  chicks  mix  a  little  as  they  get  older  than  put  in  full 
partitions  which,  in  a  measure,  interfere  with  such  parts  of 
the  work  as  cannot-be  done  from  the  passage,  as  cleaning 
the  pen  floors,  etc. 

The  partition  between  pens  and  passage  consists  of  two 
doors,  light  frames  covered  with  inch  mesh  wire  netting 
for  each  pen.  The  bottom  edge  of  the  door  is  on  a  level 
with  the  floors  of  the  pen,  the  top  edge  with  the  top  of  the . 
partition  between  the  pens.  The  2  x  3  in.  upright  at  the 
passage  end  of  each  partition  being  set  with  the  2  in.  face 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  45 

to  the  passage,  this  is  faced  with  a  strip  of  i  x  3  in.  stuf£ 
to  which  the  doors  are  hung  with  spring  hinges.  Midway 
between  each  two  uprights  at  the  passage  is  another  1x5 
in.  piece  against  which  these  doors  or  gates  shut,  and  up- 
the  center  of  this  strip  reinforcing  it  and  making  a  smooth- 
finish  where  the  doors  meet  is  a  strip  i  in.  square.  A 
little  below  the  level  of  the  pen  floors  is  a  2  x  6  in.  strip 
resting  on  brackets  of  the  same,  extending  the  whole  length- 
of  the  pens  to  make  a  step  for  convenient  entrance  to  the* 
pens  when  it  is  necessary  to  go  into  them. 

The  floor  of  the  pens  is  of  cement,  and  the  front  wall' 
and  ceiling  are  plastered.  The  north  wall  would  also  haver 
been  plastered,  but  having  been  ceiled  with  boards  when- 
the  house  was  first  built  it  was  not  necessary  to  alter  thaU 
The  house  was  used  for  years  with  no  ceiling  overhead, 
and  with  a  single  wall  in  front,  that  being  considered  all' 
that  was  necessary  when  individual  brooders  were  used  in 
a  part  of  it,  and  the  pipes  were  boxed  up,  making  art 
enclosed  brooder  in  each  pen. 

In  the  drawing  on  page  43  I  have  indicated  ther 
heater  pit  in  the  middle  of  the  house,  though  as  a  matter 
of  fact  in  this  house,  used  for  a  time  as  a  combination 
house,  there  are  two  heater  pits  and  two  small  heaters,  oner 
for  each  half  of  the  house.  When  provision  is  made  in 
the  plan  for  piping  the  entire  house,  the  common  way  is  to- 
have  the  heater  pit  in  the  center,  and  have  one,  and  some- 
times  two,  large  heaters  in  it,  either  one  of  sufficient  capa- 
city to  heat  the  whole  house  under  any  ordinary  conditions^ 
Only  one  heater  is  used  at  a  time,  the  second  being  reserved 
for  such  emergencies  as  an  extremely  low  temperature  or 
the  break  down  of  the  other  heater. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


The  heating  arrangement  need  not  be  described  in  detail, 
jfor  one  who  knows  enough  of  plumbing  to  put  in  a  heater 
himself  does  not  need  it,  and  one  who  has  no  practical 
knowledge  of  or  skill  in  work  of  that  kind  could  not  do  it 
by  the  specifications  of  an  expert  plumber,  to  say  nothing 
of  those  of  one  —  like  the  writer  —  whose  knowledge  of  the 
subject  goes  no  further  than  a  fair  comprehension  of  the 
•theory  and  method  applied.  Heaters  of  various  makes  are 


Partition  Between  Pens  and  Walk  in  Brooder  House, 

At  Lone  Oak  Poultry  Farm, 

to  be  had.  As  far  as  I  can  learn  there  is  not  a  great  deal 
of  difference  in.  them,  and  any  practical  plumber  with 
experience  in  fitting  dwellings,  shops  and  factories  with 
hot  water  heaters  can  do  the  piping  satisfactorily  when 
shown  the  method  of  applying  the  heat,  and  told  what  is 
required. 

The  position  of  the  pipes  wdth  reference  to  the  other 
jarrangemeats  of  the  house  is  indicated  in  the  cross  sectional 
diagram  on  page  42.  There  are  two  sets  of  four  pipes 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS.  47 

each.  Of  each  set  two  are  flow  and  two  return  pipes, 
there  being  thus  a  constant  circulation  of  water  through 
them,  and  if  the  heater  is  of  sufficient  capacity  an  almost 
uniform  temperature  throughout  the  pipes.  The  pipes  are 
not  placed  one  above  the  other  as  is  usual  when  plain  pipes 
are  used  and  attached  to  the  walls  in  shops  and  factories, 
but  are  on  the  same  level  and  8  inches  from  the  floors  of 


View   of   Part  of    Exterior   of   Brooder   House, 

At  Lone  Oak  Poultry  Farm. 

the  pens.  As  indicated  in  the  cut,  a  section  of  the  bottom 
board  in  each  partition  is  cut  out  to  receive  them,  and 
after  they  are  in  position  is  carefully  replaced. 

In  many  houses  the  distance  of  the  pipes  from  the  floor 
varies,  say  from  4  or  5  inches  in  the  pens  near  the  heater 
to  8  or  10  inches  at  the  end  of  the  house.  The  object  of 
this  is  to  have  the  height  of  the  pipes  from  the  floor  vary 
to  suit  chicks  of  different  ages  and  sizes.  In  other  houses 
as  in  this  the  same  object  is  gained  in  another  way.  The 
pipes  are  on  a  level,  while  the  floor  being  of  earth  or  sand, 


48  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

or  as  in  the  case  of  cement  covered  with  several  inches  of 
sand,  can  be  raised  or  lowered  to  give  any  required  dis- 
tance between  the  pipes  and  the  floor  within  the  limits 
fixed  in  the  construction  of  the  house.  This  of  course 
does  not  necessitate  the  addition  or  removal  of  sand  from 
the  pen  whenever  a  change  in  the  level  of  the  floor  under 
the  pipes  is  desired.  All  that  is  required  is  to  heap  the 
sand  under  the  pipes  for  small  chicks,  and  rake  it  away  as 
the  chicks  grow  larger.  A  distinct  advantage  claimed  for 
this  way  of  arranging  for  small  chicks  is  that  with  several 
inches  of  sand  under  the  pipes,  wrhen  that  sand  is  heated 
through  it  retains  the  heat,  and  so  the  chicks  are  furnished 
both  top  and  bottom  heat. 

27.     Individual    Brooders    in    Long    Houses. —  A 

house  such  as  has  just  been  described  for  pipe  brooders  is 
often  used  with  individual  indoor  brooders.  Many  dif- 
ferent arrangements  of  individual  inside  brooders  are 
made.  The  entire  floor  may  be  on  one  level,  the  brooders 
placed  three  or  four  feet  from  the  rear  wall,  just  enough  to 
leave  a  passage  behind  them,  and  far -enough  apart  to  give 
the  required  width  to  the  pens  in  front  of  them,  the  dis- 
tance, of  course,  varying  according  to  the  size  of  the 
brooder.  Sometimes  the  arrangement  is  practically  as 
just  described,  except  that  the  passage  back  of  the  brooders 
is  excavated  as  in  the  pipe  brooder  house  described  in  the 
preceding  section,  and  again  the  floor  is  excavated  to  the 
line  between  the  brooders  and  the  pens,  that  the  brooders 
may  be  set  enough  lower  than  the  pens  to  bring  the  floor 
of  the  hover  on  a  level  with  the  pen  floors,  and  so  avoid 
the  use  of  an  inclined  runway  to  be  traversed  by  the  chicks 
in  going  back  and  forth  between  the  hover  and  the  pen. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  49 

Another  plan  which  seemed  to  please,  for  at  least  a  time,, 
the  few  who  used  it,  but  has  never  found  favor  generally,, 
was  to  elevate  the  brooders  two  feet  or  more  from  the 
floor  and  build  small  pens,  practically  boxes,  on  the  same 
level  for  the  chicks  to  run  in,  there  being  passage  room  in 
the  front  of  the  house  as  well  as  in  the  rear.  This  was 
only  used  in  "nursery"  brooder  houses  for  very  young; 
chicks. 

Individual  brooders  have  not,  as  a  rule,  been  used  on 
large  plants,  except  as  "nursery"  brooders  in  which  the 
chicks  were  put  when  taken  from  the  incubators,  and  kept 
only  for  the  few  weeks  when  they  were  most  dependent 
upon  artificial  heat  maintained  at  a  nearly  uniform  and 
relatively  high  temperature.  On  some  large  plants  an 
entire  building  is  used  in  this  way  as  a  nursery  brooder 
house.  More  frequently  one  wing  of  a  long  brooder  house 
is  used  as  a  u  nursery  "  with  individual  brooders,  while  the 
other  wing  has  pipe  brooders,  and  into  this  the  chicks  are 
put  as  soon  as  they  are  able  to  stand  lower  temperatures 
and  wider  fluctuations  of  temperature.  For  some  years 
this  arrangement  was  vefy  popular,  and  though  it  is  still 
perhaps  more  common  to  find  it  than  the  exclusive  pipe 
system,  the  latter  as  now  generally  put  in  with  ample 
heating  capacity  and  electric  regulating  attachment  seems 
to  give  better  satisfaction. 

28.     Individual  Brooders  in  Small  Houses. —  For 

single  pen  brooder  houses,  and  for  houses  of  only  a  few 
pens,  individual  indoor  brooders  are  very  generally  used. 
A  common  practice  is  to  use  an  indoor  brooder  in  a  large 
coop  or  small  house,  from  which  the  brooder  can  be 
removed  when  the  chicks  no  longer  need  it.  This  arrange- 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


Brooder     and    Colony    House. 

ment  is  a  favorite  one  with  growers  who  hatch  in  the  latter 
part  of  winter  and  early  spring,  as  by  that  time  the  dis- 
comforts of  caring  for  chicks  in  many  separate  houses  are 
small  as  compared  with  what  they  are  through  early  and 
midwinter,  and  the  chicks  need  not  be  moved  until 
marketed  or  put  into  winter  quarters.  While,  when  buy- 
ing brooders  to  use  in  this  way,  the  indoor  style  is  pre- 
ferred as  costing  less  and  suiting  the  conditions  of  a 
substantially  built  coop  or  house  better,  it  is  sometimes 
advisable  when  a  brooder  is  to  be  used  under  cover  in  a 
space  so  large  or  airy  that  the  surplus  heat  from  the 
brooder  would  have  little  effect  on  the  temperature  of  the 
place,  to  use  an  outdoor  brooder,  which  provides  a  space 
intermediate  in  temperature  between  the  hover  space  and 
the  apartment  in  which  the  brooder  is  placed. 

29.     Outdoor  Brooders. — It  is  only  under  exceptional 
conditions,  such  as  mentioned  at  the  close  of  the  preceding 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  51 

paragraph,  or  because  he  has  the  brooders  and  wishes  to 
make  such  use  of  them  as  he  can,  that  the  poultry  man 
growing  market  poultry  on  a  considerable  scale  uses  out- 
door brooders ;  but  by  many  who  grow  a  few  chickens  for 
market  the  outdoor  brooder  is  preferred,  and,  in  many 
instances  is  undoubtedly  the  most  satisfactory  and  econom- 
ical brooding  arrangement.  Thus  one  growing  only  a 
few  roasters,  hatching  them  early  in  the  fall,  and  at  that 
time  requiring  all  his  coops  and  buildings  for  other  pur- 
poses, would  be  likely  to  conclude  that  outdoor  brooders 
would  just  suit  his  circumstances,  conditions  generally 
being  favorable  to  using  them  without  inconvenience,  dis- 
comfort, or  special  risk,  while  the  chicks  would  be  ready 
to  go  into  other  quarters  by  the  time  winter  set  in.  For  a 
few  spring  chicks,  too,  the  outdoor  brooder  often  comes 
in  handier  than  any  other  arrangement,  and  I  have  known 
growers  getting  out  a  good  many  early  chickens  use  out- 
door brooders  exclusively,  though  when  the  number 
required  goes  above  fifteen  or  twenty  the  grower  is  apt  to 
begin  to  find  the  care  of  them  too  burdensome,  for  it  is 
generally  conceded  that  the  isolated  and  unprotected  outdoor 
brooder  is  most  likely  to  take  fire,  and  therefore  requires 
more  careful  attention  than  brooders  in  well  built  houses  or 
coops. 

30.  Houses  for  Growing  Stock We  have  to  con- 
sider these  in  connection  with  roasters  only,  broilers  almost 
invariably  going  to  market  right  from  the  brooder. 
Several  styles  of  these  houses  are  shown  in  the  accompany- 
ing cuts.  The  cut  on  page  52  shows  a  building  on  one  of 
the  large  roaster  farms  into  which  chicks  are  put  when 
first  taken  from  the  pipe  brooder  houses.  Sometimes 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS, 


Long    Brooder    and    Stock    House. 

when  the  accommodations  of  the  pipe  brooder  house  are 
insufficient,  individual  brooders  are  put  in  this  house,  and 
chicks  removed  to  it  several  weeks  before  they  are  ready  to 
do  without  artificial  heat.  The  unevenness  of  results  in 
hatching  makes  it  quite  necessary  to  have  on  any  large 
plant  some  buildings  which  can  be  used  for  either  small  or 
weaned  chicks,  as  desired,  otherwise  in  a  season  of  more 
than  average  good  hatches  the  grower  may  easily  find  his 
very  success  in  hatching  a  burden  to  him  because  of  lack 
of  suitable  facilities  for  taking  care  of  the  chicks  as  they 
come. 

For  winter  use,  and  until  the  chicks  are  well  past  danger 
from  all  the  common  ills  of  young  poultry,  houses  in  which 
several  hundred  can  be  kept  are  usually  found  more  con- 
venient. For  spring  and  summer  use,  and  for  well  grown 
chicks  at  any  season,  the  South  Shore  growers  use  small 
colony  houses  of  such  styles  as  are  shown  on  pages  50  and 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS 


53 


53.  By  those  who  had  seen  poultry  kept  only  by  the  rules 
in  general  use,  accounts  of  what  was  done  with  these  small 
colony  houses  were  long  regarded  with  suspicion.  A 
description  of  the  way  they  are  used,  and  explanation  of 
some  things  about  them  not  clear  to  those  who  have  neither 
used  or  seen  them  in  use,  is  more  appropriate  to  the  chap- 
ter on  the  general  care  of  roasters,  and  will  be  found  there. 
For  the  present  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  a  number  of  these 
small  houses,  or  of  buildings  of  not  much  greater  capacity, 
is  to  be  regarded  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  equipment  of  a 
plant  where  roasters  are  to  be  grown  economically.  The 
houses  may  vary  much  in  design,  according  to  the  whim 
of  the  builder  or  the  possibilities  of  the  material  to  be  used 


Colony    House,    6x8    ft.      Used    for    Fifty    Roasting    Chicken*. 


54  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

I  think  the  smallest  I  have  seen  were  six  by  eight  feet  on 
the  ground,  and  these  were  used  for  colonies  of  fifty  chicks 
from  nearly  half  grown  to  full  grown  in  size. 

31 .  Feed  and  Cook  House. — Whether  a  special  build- 
ing is  to  be  used  for  these  purposes,  is  a  question  to  be 
decided  according  to  the  circumstances  in  each  case.  Often 
it  is  more  convenient  to  use  a  part  of  another  building  for 
a  feed  storage  and  cook  room.  One  end  of  a  brooder 
house  may  be  appropriated  for  the  purpose,  or  a  room 
built  over  the  incubator  cellar  or  in  connection  with  it. 
When  supplies  are  bought  as  used,  only  a  few  days'  or 
weeks'  supply  being  kept  on  hand,  large  space  is  not 
required.  On  some  quite  large  plants  sheds  having  onl} 
a  hundred  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  square  feet  of  floor  space 
are  found  amply  large  for  cooking  and  for  such  supplies  of 
stuffs  to  be  cooked  as  are  kept  on  hand,  while  other  sup- 
plies are  kept  in,  any  suitable  and  convenient  place.  As 
the  reader  will  infer  from  such  a  statement,  the  successful 
plant  of  today  is  generally  one  that  has  grown  slowly  from 
small  beginnings,  and  many  of  its  appointments  are  of  a 
makeshift  character,  a  fact  in  no  way  counting  against 
them,  provided  they  answer  their  purpose  as  well  as  most 
of  them  do.  On  some  of  the  plants  of  more  pretentious 
beginnings,  and  on  some  of  the  long  established  farms  that 
have  had  to  replace  their  original  buildings,  commodious 
and  well  appointed  buildings  for  storage,  cooking,  cutting 
hay,  vegetables  and  bone,  buildings  in  fact  which  provide 
for  everything  not  included  in  the  stock  buildings  are  to  be 
found,  but  the  requirements  for  such  buildings  are  so  vari- 
ous that  it  would  not  be  profitable  to  devote  space  to  them 
in  a  small  book  of  this  class.  Their  dimensions,  arrange- 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  55 

ment  and  equipment  are  according  to  the  individual  ideas 
and  needs  of  the  proprietor,  and  so  one  rarely  finds  the 
similarity  in  them  that  is  found  in  buildings  in  which  poul- 
try is  kept. 

32.  Poultry  Killing  and   Packing   Room. —  Unless 
the  product  is  to  be   sold  alive  there    should  be  a  small 
building  or  a  room  set  apart  to  be  used  for  killing,  dress- 
ing, cooling  and  packing  poultry  for  shipment.     From  the 
general  practice  in  large  poultry  producing  sections  as  weB 
as  from  what  I  learn  from   market  poultrymen  in    many 
places,  I  think  that  producers  near  the  large  markets  gen- 
erally find  it  more  to  their  advantage   to  sell  their  poultry 
alive  than  to  dress  it  themselves.     That  point,  however,  is 
one  that  each  should  decide  for  himself  after  having  looked 
into  it  thoroughly,  and  of  course,  added  the  cost  per  pound 
to  him  of  marketing  his  own   poultry  to  the  price   he  can 
obtain  for  it  alive.     In  many  places -not  having  such  divi- 
sion of  labor  in  the  handling  of   market   poultry  from  the 
breeding  stock  to  the  table,   and   such  careful  grading  of 
table  poultry  according  to  quality  as  is  found  in  the  local- 
ities adjacent  to  the  best  markets,  it  is  undoubtedly  better 
for  the  grower  to  dress  his  own  poultry.     In  that  case  it  is 
economy  to  have  a  special  place  for  this  work,  and  to  have 
its  few  simple  appointments    conveniently   arranged.     As 
these  will  be  referred  to  in  the  chapter  devoted  to  market- 
ing, nothing  more  specific  need  be  said  of  them  here. 

33.  Miscellaneous  Appliances. — The    really  neces- 
sary small  furnishings  for  the  broiler  or  roaster  plant  are 
few  in  number,  inexpensive ;  some  of  them  can  be  made  at 
home  at  almost  nominal  cost,  and  cheap  articles  that  will 
answer  the  purpose  are  always  procurable.     If  one  wishes. 


56  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

to  economize  in  this  direction  he  can  make  his  own  feed- 
ing troughs  and  boxes,  and  even  convert  articles  usually 
thrown  away  into  serviceable  food  or  water  vessels.  Those 
who  want  articles  specially  made  with  reference  to  the  uses 
for  which  they  are  designed,  and  in  finish  appropriate  for 
a  well  appointed  plant,  will  find  them  in  great  variety  in 
the  poultry  supply  stores.  Of  things  really  essential  we 
might  say  that  after  the  plain  food  and  water  vessels  there 
are  none,  but  one  who  wants  all  the  *' modern  conven- 
iences" will  find  them  in  the  supply  store  or  listed  in  its 
catalogue. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


57 


CHAPTER     V. 


Hatching  and  Brooding. 


34.  About  Eggs  for  Hatching.  —  The  grower  of 
broilers  generally  begins  operations  about  the  time  winter 
sets  in.  He  may  have  from  his  own  yards  a  part  of  the 
eggs  he  needs.  If  he  is  running  many  incubators  he  is 
likely  to  have  to  buy  a  large  proportion  of  the  eggs  he 
wants  at  this  season,  and  if  he  is  wise  he  will  be  as  par- 
ticular as  possible  about  where  the  eggs  he  buys  come 
from.  Once  in  a  while  a  man  will  have  very  good  hatches 
from  eggs  picked  up  at  a  store  or  commission  house,  but 
as  a  rule  operators  of  incubators  find  hatches  at  this  season 
none  too  good  even  after  they  have  taken  every  precaution 
in  their  power  to  get  good  hatchable  eggs.  The  most  sat- 
isfactory way,  when  eggs  have  to  be  bought,  is  to  make 
arrangements  with  poultry  keepers  in  the  vicinity  who 
have  laying  at  that  time  flocks  of  the  general  type  of  fowl 
from  which  it  is  desired  to  hatch,  to  take  their  eggs  every 
few  days.  It  is  not  always  possible  to  get  all  the  eggs  one 
can  use  in  this  way,  but  one  who  continues  in  the  business 
can  within  a  few  years  work  up  a  connection  of  this  kind 


58  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

through  which  he  is  practically  assured  of  all  the  eggs  he 
can  use.  If  local  eggs  to  the  number  desired  are  not 
obtainable  one  must  buy  where  he  can.  As  the  demand 
for  eggs  for  winter  chickens  increases  more  and  more, 
poultry  keepers  are  preparing  to  supply  it,  and  advertising 
eggs  at  this  season,  though  the  supply  is  and  doubtless  will 
long  continue  to  be  very  limited  in  comparison  with  the 
offerings  after  midwinter.  It  is  a  good  plan  when  buying 
eggs  in  large  quantities  for  incubators  to  make  sure  that 
they  are  from  desirable  stock,  and  if  the  yards  from  which 
one  proposes  to  secure  eggs  are  at  all  accessible  it  is  worth 
while  to  visit  them  for  that  purpose.  A  little  time  and  a 
dollar  or  two,  or  even  more,  spent  in  this  way,  would 
prove  to  be  wise  expenditure,  if  it  saved  one  from  buying 
some  thousands  of  eggs  that  might  hatch  well,  but  not 
chicks  that  would  make  satisfactory  poultry. 

35.  Operating  the  Incubators. — As  with  every  incu- 
bator sold  goes  a  book  of  instructions  as  to  the  running  of 
that  particular  make  of  machine,  it  would  be  superfluous 
to  go  into  full  details  in  a  book  of  this  kind,  and  I  give  as 
likely  to  be  more  useful  to  the  reader  a  few  general  state- 
ments in  regard  to  the  management  of  incubators  on  plants- 
where  many  are  in  operation.  Some  of  the  things  I  have 
to  say  may  be  found  also  in  books  of  instructions,  but  my 
observation  has  been  that  many  amateur  operators  are  but 
little  impressed  by  the  general  advices  and  cautions  in  lists 
of  instructions,  but  having  informed  themselves  on  the  few 
specific  rules  which  they  have  to  know  in  order  to  run  the 
machine  at  all,  pay  no  attention  to  the  rest. 

Perhaps  the  most  common  causes  of  failures  with  incuba- 
tors are  carelessness  and  neglect  in  attending  to  the 


^BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  59. 

machines,  —  not  habitual  carelessness  and  neglect,  but 
occasional.  Some  manufacturers  may  be  to  some  degree 
responsible  for  the  general  impression  among  those  who 
have  not  learned  differently  through  experience,  that  an 
incubator  can  go  for  twenty-four  hours  or  more  without 
attention.  True,  it  may  be  left  that  long  without  anything 
going  wrong,  but  the  experienced  operator  learns  to  take 
no  chances  of  that  kind.  Twice  a  day  he  goes  through 
the  routine  work  of  caring  for  his  machines,  but  he  keeps 
an  eye  on  them  at  convenient  intervals  between  times  as 
well ;  for  some  little  thing  may  go  wrong  with  a  machine 
at  any  time,  and  the  loss  of  an  incubator  full  of  eggs  is 
quite  an  item. 

After  giving  his  machine  or  machines  such  regular 
attention  as  they  require,  and  such  incidental  oversight  as 
is  possible  —  within  reason  —  the  operator  should  study 
his  machines.  He  should  learn  how  they  behave  under 
different  conditions,  and  how  slight  changes  in  moisture,, 
ventilation,  etc.,  affect  them  in  operation,  and  also  how 
variations,  whether  accidental  or  intentional,  seem  to  affect 
the  chicks  in  after  life.  The  operator  has  to  learn  to  oper- 
ate machines,  and  each  machine,  under  the  particular  con- 
dition to  which  his  machines  are  subject,  and  in  doing  this 
he  is  in  effect  learning  the  precise  application  of  the  gen- 
eral rules  which  the  manufacturer  has  given  for  operating 
his  incubators — that  is,  he  is  cultivating  judgment  in  apply- 
ing his  instructions. 

It  will  greatly  help  a  novice  in  incubation  to  draw  right 
conclusions  from  his  experiences  in  artificial  incubation,  if 
he  can  arrange  to  have  one  or  two  hens  incubating  simul- 
taneously with  some  of  his  machines  and  on  some  of  the- 


60  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

same  eggs.  This  gives  him  more  of  an  opportunity  to 
check  his  work  with  the  incubator.  He  can  compare  the 
,air  cells  in  the  eggs  in  his  incubator  with  those  at  the  same 
stage  of  incubation  under  the  hens,  and  so  judge  better 
about  his  ventilation  and  moisture.  In  case  of  failure  or  a 
very  poor  hatch  with  a  machine  results  from  the  eggs  under 
hens  may  indicate  whether  the  trouble  is  in  the  eggs  or  in 
operation. 

The  ventilation  of  the  cellar  or  other  apartment  in  which 
incubators  are  run  must  be  such  that  there  will  be  com- 
paratively little  odor  from  the  lamps.  A  bad  smelling 
incubator  room  means  impure  air  in  the  room,  and  that 
means  a  lack  of  pure  air  and  oxygen  in  the  egg  chambers. 
Probably  the  best  mode  of  ventilation  is  through  windows 
high  up  in  the  walls,  having  double  sash,  the  outside  one 
being  hinged  at  the  top,  and  the  inside  one  from  the 
bottom.  The  sash  can  then  be  opened  as  much  or  as  little 
.as  is  required.  Their  position  with  reference  to  each  other 
.sends  the  current  of  air  entering  the  window  upward  and 
away  from  the  machines,  so  that  the  cool  air  introduced  is 
warmed  before  it  reaches  them.  Another  application  of 
the  same  idea  in  ventilation  is  sometimes  made  in  the  doors 
which,  as  a  rule,  are  double.  A  few  large  holes  are  bored 
near  the  top  or  bottom,  it  makes  no  difference  which,  of 
the  outside  door,  and  a  corresponding  number  at  the  other 
extremity  of  the  inside  door,  thus  providing  for  a  slow 
movement  of  air  through  these  holes  and  the  space  between 
the  doors.  Slides  can  be  arranged  to  close  a  part  or  all  of 
the  holes.  With  this  provision  in  the  door,  and  with  one 
•or  more  windows  as  described  above,  proper  ventilation  is 
a  matter  of  judgment  in  the  adjustment  of  the  openings. 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS.  6r 

There  must  be  a  circulation  of  air,  but  not  so  rapid  as  to 
reduce  the  inside  temperature  so  that  the  machines  will  be 
affected.  A  good  rule  to  observe  to  secure  this  is  to 
ventilate  as  little  as  is  necessary  to  keep  down  the  odor. 

36.  Running  the  Brooders. — The  commonest  faults 
in  the  construction  and  operation  of  pipe  brooder  houses- 
have  been  insufficient  heating  capacity  and  lack  of  air 
under  the  hovers.  To  the  first  of  these  causes  responsibil- 
ity for  the  other  maybe  assigned.  Operators  tried,  and 
many  still  try,  to  get  along  with  the  smallest  possible 
heater,  and  to  economize  heat  by  closely  covering  the  space 
under  the  pipes.  Many  of  the  most  successful  growers 
today  either  use  no  covering  on  the  pipes,  or  use  it  only 
for  a  few  days  when  the  chicks  are  very  small.  With 
heaters  of  greater  capacity  they  can  make  the  space  under 
the  pipes  as  warm  as  need  be  without  shutting  it  up 
closely.  Thus  the  chicks  are  kept  warm,  and  at  the  same 
time  have  abundance  of  air.  The  electric  regulators  in  use 
are  placed  under  the  pipes  and  connect  by  wires  with  a 
damper  in  the  heater,  and  also  with  an  alarm  bell  within 
hearing  of  the  operator  at  his  house.  -Within  a  range  of  a 
few  degrees  the  regulator  controls-  the  damper  on  the 
heater,  opening  or  closing  it  as  the  temperature  falls  or 
rises.  Should  a  variation  beyond  its  power  to  control 
occur,  it  gives  notice  to  the  operator  through  the  alarm 
bell.  It  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  practical 
value  of  this  little  mechanism  to  growers  of  broilers  and 
roasters,  relieving  them  of  both  work  and  worry  in  con- 
nection with  the  maintaining  of  the  temperature  of  their 
brooders. 

It   is   of  the  utmost   importance  that  the  chicks,  during; 


<62  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

;the  first  few  days,  be  kept  warm  and  not  allowed  to  get 
far  away  from  the  heat.  To  insure  these  conditions  it  is 
customary  to  use  at  first  a  board,  as  described  on  page  44, 
io  confine  them  to  the  space  under  and  near  the  pipes. 
For  the  first  few  days  warmth  is  more  essential  to  them 
than  anything  else  but  air,  and  the  most  approved  practice 
is  to  keep  the  chicks  quite  closely  in  the  brooder,  and  keep 
the  temperature  at  90°  to  95°,  rather  high  than  low. 
The  action  of  the  chickens  toward  the  heat  is  sometimes 
<cited  as  a  reliable  index  of  the  proper  conditions.  While 
it  probably  is  so  to  an  experienced  operator,  a  novice's 
lack  of  familiarity  with  the  habits  of  chickens,  and  inex- 
perience in  observing  them,  is  apt  to  lead  him  to  make 
•serious  errors  in  judging  conditions  this  way,  and  it  is 
generally  safer  for  him  to  go  by  the  thermometer  for  tem- 
perature. Under  the  system  we  are  now  considering, 
.there  is  little  danger  of  the  chicks  not  getting  enough  air. 

Another  point  to  be  noted  in  connection  with  this  system 
is  that  there  being  a  free  circulation  of  air  all  about  the 
<chicks  the  chick  capacity  of  the  space  is  very  much 
increased,  especially  for  the  very  young  chicks.  Where 
'.the  pipes  are  closed,  and  the  temperature  outside  the  hovers 
much  below  what  is  required,  it  is,  of  course,  more  diffi- 
cult to  maintain  an  even  temperature  under  the  hover,  and 
it  was  this  difficulty  that  led  to  so  general  use  of  individ- 
ual u  nursery  "  brooders  for  the  smallest  chicks. 

In  a  general  way  the  care  of  the  individual  brooder  is 
•.much  like  the  care  of  the  incubator.  By  far  the  greater 
:number  in  use  are  hot  air  brooders,  heated  by  lamps  or 
*'  stoves"  which  require  attention  as  often  as  incubators, 
so  high  a  temperature  is  to  be  maintained  under  the 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  63 

hover  as  in  the  egg  chamber,  but  as  the  chicks  require 
much  more  air  than  the  eggs,  the  problem  of  ventilation 
is,  if  anything,  more  difficult,  and  it  is  the  difficulty  of 
supplying  fresh  air  as  required,  without  reducing  too  much 
the  temperature  under  the  hovers  that  makes  it  generally 
necessary  in  practice  to  reduce  the  number  of  chicks  in  the 
brooders  so  much  below  the  manufacturers'  rated  capacity. 
After  an  approximately  correct  temperature,  (about  95°  at 
the  start,  gradually  reduced  to  between  80°  and  85°  by  the 
time  the  chicks  are  three  weeks  old),  the  most  important 
thing  to  observe  is  the  purity  of  the  air  in  the  hover,  and 
the  operator  should  bear  in  mind  that  in  securing  this  he 
must  consider  the  chicks,  as  well  as  the  lamp,  as  possible 
sources  of  noxious  gases,  and  keep  their  number  down 
to  the  safety  point. 

As  the  chicks  grow,  whether  under  pipes  or  in  hot  air 
brooders,  there  is  less  and  less  need  of  artificial  heat,  and 
the  danger  of  chicks* in  close  hovers  becoming  overheated 
through  the  combination  of  heat  from  their  bodies,  and 
from  the  lamp  or  stove,  increases  so  much  that  the  smaller 
the  early  losses  in  a  batch  of  chicks,  the  greater  the  danger 
of  things  suddenly  going  wrong  with  chicks  supposed  to 
be  well  past  the  dangers  of  early  chickhood.  The  surest 
preventive  of  troubles  at  this  period  is  to  avoid  overcrowd- 
ing. Whatever  mode  of  brooding  is  used,  brooder  chicks 
require  more  care  than  those  hatched  and  brooded  naturally. 
The  larger  numbers  kept  together  alter  conditions,  while 
the  fact  that  the  brooder,  however  good,  cannot  be  to  the 
chick  all  that  the  natural  mother  is,  makes  it  more  neces- 
sary that  the  keeper  should  exercise  close  watchfulness 
and  see  that  everything  is  right  and  kept  right.  To  give 


64  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

one  or  two  illustrations  :  A  brood  of  a  dozen  chicks  run- 
ning with  a  hen  may  have  their  drinking  water  in  an  open 
saucer,  and  paddle  through  it,  wetting  themselves  a  little, 
but  fifty  or  a  hundred  chicks  with  access  to  an  open  water 
vessel  will  soon  have  themselves  and  their  surroundings  in 
sorry  condition,  and  so  many  bedraggled  brooder  chicks, 
will  hardly  dry  off  without  some  of  their  number  being  the 
worse  for  the  wetting,  while  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  in 
such  a  case  for  chicks  (and  even  ducks)  to  be  so  exhausted 
in  the  dabbling  that  they  are  run  over  and  killed  by  the 
rest. 

In  feeding,  too,  there  must  be  more  care.  The  average 
hen  hatched  and  brooded  chick  will-  thrive  in  spite  of 
irregularities  in  feeding  which  would  stunt  and  perhaps- 
eventually  kill  the  average  brooder  chick.  When  all  goes- 
right  by  the  artificial  methods,  results  should  be  identical 
with  the  best  results  by  natural  methods,  but  the  operator 
of  incubators  and  brooders  who  keeps  things  right  so  gener- 
ally that  his  average  results  are  as  good  or  better  than 
average  results  by  the  other  method,  does  it  by  combining 
good  judgment  with  unfailing  vigilance. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  65 


CHAPTER    VI. 


Feeding    Systems  —  Foods   and    Feeding. 


37.  The  Two  Feeding  Systems. —  According  to 
their  preference  in  methods  of  feeding,  poultry  keepers 
today  may  be  roughly  divided  into  two  classes  —  one  com- 
prising the  advocates  of  dry  feeding^  the  other  the  advo- 
cates of  wet  feeding".  The  line  of  division  between  these 
classes  is  not  as  sharply  defined  in  practice  as  would 
appear  from  the  statements  of  exponents  of  the  different 
methods.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  attitude  of  representa- 
tives of  the  two  schools  toward  practical  feeding,  and 
toward  each  other,  is  best  expressed  by  stating  that  they 
differ  more  in  their  philosophy  of  feeding  than  otherwise. 
The  advocate  of  wet  feeding  regards  a  judicious  alternation 
of  wet  or  soft  food  and  hard  grain  as  generally  productive 
of  best  results.  The  advocate  of  dry  feeding  considers  the 
use  of  wet  foods  dangerous,  or  at  least  involving  greater 
risks  than  the  use  of  all  dry  rations  of  grain,  with  what 
' '  wetting  "  is  required  supplied  in  pure  water  and  succu- 
lent green  food. 


66  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

Anything  like  an  extended  or  exhaustive  discussion  of 
the  numerous  points  which  must  be  covered  in  a  compre- 
hensive treatment  of  the  question  is  impossible  in  the 
limited  space  allotted  to  the  subject  in  this  book ;  but  it  is 
in  order  to  observe  that  whatever  the  first  preference  of  a 
poultryman,  as  based  on  theory  or  report  of  results,  may 
be,  he  must  ultimately  come  to  the  method  which  is  most 
in  harmony  with  his  conditions,  and  with  the  other  parts 
of  his  system  of  poultry  keeping.  So  it  is  well  for  him 
not  to  feel  too  much  faith  in  any  one  system  or  method, 
for  there  is  none  that  will  insure  good  results  under  any 
and  all  conditions,  and  in  feeding,  as  in  other  things,  one 
must  learn  to  adapt  his  methods  to  his  circumstances, 
changing  them  or  not,  as  conditions  and  results  seem  to 
require. 

38.  Mash  Systems  of  Feeding. —  Under  this  head- 
ing I  would  include  all  methods  in  which  wetted,  scalded, 
steamed,  or  baked  ground  feed  stuffs,  or  mixtures  of  the 
same,  are  used  as  the  whole  or  a  part  of  the  ration. 

A  ration  of  all  wet,  raw,  or  partly  cooked  foods,  or  of 
cooked  foods  soaked  before  being  fed,  should  never  be 
used  in  connection  with  artificial  brooding.  Such  a  ration 
is  an  unsafe  one,  except  for  chicks  roaming  with  hens  on 
a  range  where  seeds  of  various  kinds  are  abundant.  In 
other  words,  it  is  safe  to  feed  an  all  wet  diet  only  when 
what  is  given  the  chicks  forms  only  a  part  of  their  ration, 
and  what  they  secure  by  foraging  counteracts  the  bad 
tendencies  of  too  much  wet  food.  The  risks  of  an  all  wet 
ration  are  greater  when  chicks  are  brooded  artificially, 
because  bad  effects  of  errors  of  temperature  have  the  same 
tendency  as  an  excess  of  wet  food —  i.  e.,  to  cause  bowel 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  67 

trouble — hence  the  two  things  together  make  a  double  risk. 
I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  it  is  not  possible  to  have  chicks 
thrive  on  such  a  ration.  Good  broilers  have  been  grown 
that  way ;  but  the  risks  are  greater  than  when  a  safer 
method  of  feeding  is  used. 

A  ration  of  all  cooked  food  may  be  used  for  broilers 
with  good  results,  and  is  often  used  for  young  chicks  up  to 
broiler  size,  though  they  are  to  be  kept  for  roasters  or  for 
stock  purposes,  but  it  is  questionable  whether  such  a 
method,  used  exclusively  for  the  first  few  months,  is  advis- 
able for  chicks  that  are  not  to  be  marketed  as  broilers. 
The  usual  effect  of  an  all  soft  grain  food  ration,  with  some 
green  stuff,  meat,  and  grit,  of  course,  provided,  is  to  make 
a  temporary  rapid  growth,  while  the  digestive  organs  used 
for  soft  foods  only,  and  so  not  developed  in  proportion  to 
the  general  development,  become  inadequate  to  the  work 
required  of  them  later  in  life,  when-  economy  imperatively 
requires  the  use  of  a  nearly  all  hard  grain  ration.  For  a 
few  months  chicks  may  be  fed  exclusively  on  a  steam 
cooked  mash,  or  baked  cake,  and  some  growers  have 
thought  that  method  preferable. 

The  more  common  method  has  been  to  alternate  soft  and 
hard  feeds,  or  if  not  feeding  them  in  regular  alternation  to 
make  about  half  the  day's  ration  soft  and  the  rest  hard. 
Thus  one  very  successful  grower  used  to  start  his  chicks 
on  stale  bread  crumbs  fed  alternately  moistened  with  milk 
and  dry,  practically  a  balancing  of  tendencies  toward  loose- 
ness and  costiveness.  Others  have  used  baked  cakes  or 
steamed  mash  or  scalded  mash.  The  baked  "  johnnycake," 
whether  of  corn  meal  alone  or  of  a  mixture  of  mill  stuffs 
and  the  various  kinds  of  mashes,  are  safe  or  unsafe  foods 


68  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

as  a  steady  diet  according  to  their  consistency.  Their 
composition  has  more  effect  on  growth  than  on  health.  A 
cake  that  is  heavy  and  doughy,  or  a  soggy  mash,  will 
quickly  put  a  good  proportion  of  the  chicks  in  brooders  to 
which  it  is  fed  to  the  bad,  while  a  food  of  like  composition 
but  well  prepared  would  give  very  good  results.  Variety 
in  a  ration  generally  gives  better  growth  than  a  monoto- 
nous ration,  especially  if  the  ration  contains  but  a  single 
article,  yet  it  is  possible  to  get  better  results  from  a  well 
made  all  corn  meal  cake  than  from  a  poorly  made  ration 
much  better  balanced  in  its  constituents.  Such  facts  as 
these  will  account  for  some  of  the  differences  in  method, 
and  radical  differences  of  opinion  as  to  values  of  methods 
which  puzzle  the  beginner  when  he  discovers  how  even 
successful  poultry  men  will  disagree  in  matters  of  this  kind. 

Baking  cakes  is  too  much  work  to  allow  of  the  use  of 
much  baked  cake  where  large  numbers  of  chicks  are 
handled.  For  a  few  chicks  it  may  be  the  most  satisfac- 
tory way,  particularly  when  the  chicks  are  small  and 
require  but  a  little  food  at  a  time.  Under  such  conditions 
a  baked  cake  comes  in  very  handy,  as  it  will  keep  for  days 
when  a  mash  would  get  heavy  or  sour  or  moldy.  Some 
large  growers  like  to  use  baked  cakes  for  their  youngest 
chickens,  but  for  economy  of  labor  it  is  better  to  have  one 
system  for  all  chicks,  and  so  when  food  is  prepared  make 
one  job  of  it. 

If  a  cake  is  used  it  may  be  either  of  all  corn  meal  or  of 
corn  meal  mixed  with  other  articles.  Here  are  some 
receipts  that  have  been  given  for  cakes  : 

Add  a  little  soda  to  sour  milk ;  stir  in  corn  meal  or  corn 
chop  to  make  a  stiff  batter —  the  stiffer  the  better.  A  few 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  69 

infertile  eggs  added  improve  the  cake.     Table  scraps  may 
be  mixed  in  the  batter. 


Grind  together  corn,  wheat  and  oats,  equal  parts;  mix 
with  milk,  and  bake. 

Grind  together  20  Ibs.  corn,  20  Ibs.  oats,  10  Ibs.  barley, 
add  10  Ibs.  wheat  bran.  This  makes  what  is  known  as 
u  excelsior  meal."  To  make  cake  of  this  :  Take  one 
quart  sour  milk  or  buttermilk,  add  a  little  salt  and  molasses, 
a  quart  of  water,  a  heaping  teaspoonful  saleratus,  thicken 
with  the  meal  a  little  thicker  than  batter  for  corn  cakes  ; 
bake  in  shallow  pans. 


Take  i  pint  corn  meal,  i  teacup  bran,  i  teaspoon  meat 
meal,  i  raw  egg,  i  teaspoon  soda,  i  teacup  cold  water; 
bake  two  hours. 


Take  3  qts.  corn  meal,  i  qt.  wheat  middlings,  i  cup 
meat  meal ;  mix  with  water  or  skim  milk  to  which  has  been 
added  4  tablespoons  vinegar,  2  teaspoons  soda. 


To  make  a  good  mash : 

Make  a  stiff  thick  mush  of  corn  meal  stirred  into  boiling 
water.     Into  this  stir  the  other  ingredients  used. 


A  very  satisfactory  mash  is  made  by  adding  bran  alone 
to  the  mush,  the  proportion  of  this  mash  should  be  about 
half  and  half  corn  meal  and  bran,  and  when  finished  should 
be  light  and  crumbly,  but  not  mealy  —  that  is,  a  spoonful 
or  handful  of  it  should  have  a  tendency  to  crumble  like  a 
lump  of  earth,  the  particles  of  which  without  being  wet 


y0  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

enough  or  firm  enough  to  retain  their  form,  still  stick 
together  somewhat,  crumble  —  but  do  not  separate  as 
the  particles  of  dry  earth,  ashes,  sand,  or  meal  do.  It  is 
hard  to  give  in  words  an  idea  of  the  consistency  of  a  mash. 
Describing  consistency  is  much  like  describing  a  color  or  a 
sound. 

There  is  this  much  to  be  said  about  the  mash  though : 
If  one  does  not  get  good  results  from  mash  feeding  it  is 
because  his  mash  is  inappropriate  —  in  some  way  faulty, 
and  if  after  several  changes  he  still  fails  to  make  a  mash 
that  gives  him  good  results,  I  would  certainly  advise  him 
to  try  another  method,  for  there  is  no  one  method  better 
than  others  for  all  people  under  all  circumstances,  but  the 
best  method  for  each  is  the  method  that  gives  him  best 
results. 

For  a  mash  with  more  variety  in  it  than  that  given 
above,  take  corn  meal  and  ground  oats,  equal  parts,  scald 
or  cook  in  a  mash,  then  stir  in  as  much  bran  as  it  will  take, 
and  add  five  to  ten  per  cent  of  meat  scrap  or  meat  meal. 
For  small  chicks  it  is  better  to  go  not  much  over  five  per 
cent  of  meat,  but  as  they  approach  market  age  the  quantity 
may  be  increased. 

If  mostly  mash  is  fed  make  the  mash  as  dry  as  it  can  be 
mixed,  and  feed  it  either  warm  as  first  mixed  or  before  it 
becomes  cold.  As  a  rule  it  is  not  advisable  to  feed  a  cold 
mash  to  small  chicks  in  cold  weather,  for  it  is  apt  to  be 
heavy  and  have  a  tendency  to  cause  indigestion.  Aim  to 
mix  up  no  more  mash  at  one  time  than  can  be  used  before 
it  becomes  cold.  (Cover  up  and  set  in  a  warm  place,  it 
will  keep  warm  and  nice  for  a  day)  ;  but  if  a  mash  does 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  ji 

become  cold  and  soggy  warm  it  up,  and  either  mix  with 
some  fresh  mash  or  add  dry  bran  and  meal  to  improve  its 
consistency. 

It  is  not  possible  to  give  comprehensive  directions  about 
mash  making  and  mending.  All  that  can  be  done  in  that 
way  is  by  suggestion — giving  the  reader  an  idea  of  what  is 
possible.  He  must  work  it  out  for  himself,  just  as  he 
works  out  problems  of  incubation  and  brooding,  learning 
by  experience  how  to  balance  the  ingredients  to  get  a  com- 
position that  the  chicks  will  eat  with  relish  and  thrive, 
upon. 

.     1 

39.  The  Dry  Feed  System. —  Leaving  out  of  con- 
sideration, for  the  time,  the  question  of  relative  possibili- 
ties of  the  two  systems,  I  think  it  may  be  positively 
affirmed  that  far  the  greater  number  of  persons  growing 
chicks  in  brooders,  who  have  tried  the  two  systems,  find 
that  they  get  better  results  by  dry  feeding  —  that  is,  they 
find  that  system  easier  to  apply.  It  is  a  simpler  system. 
Possibly  the  best  results  in  individual  growth  or  produc- 
tion, when  dry  feeding  is  practiced,  are  not,  taking  one 
case  with  another,  as  good  as  the  best  results  by  a  system 
that  includes  the  use  of  some  soft  and  moist  grain  feeds. 
My  personal  opinion  is  that  they  are  not,  but  the  question 
is  one  not  easily  demonstrated  conclusively,  and  therefore 
better  considered  an  open  question.  But  it  seems  quite 
plain  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  losses  of  chicks  have 
been  much  smaller  by  the  dry  feed  method.  As  every  lost 
chick  has  to  be  paid  for  out  of  the  price  received  for  those 
grown  to  marketable  age  before  one  begins  to  figure  net 
proceeds,  it  is  clear  that  the  system  giving  the  least  losses 
will,  in  many  cases,  be  the  more  satisfactory  system,  and 


•J2  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

the  one  that,  in  a  majority  of  cases,  will  give  the  greater 
profit,  though  it  may  not  give  the  best  obtainable  quality 
in  individuals. 

Is  dry  feeding,  then,  to  be  recommended  as  the  best 
system  for  all  beginners  ?  Not  at  all.  A  good  proportion 
—  though  not  the  majority  — of  beginners  will  get  as  good 
or  better  results  from  the  start  by  other  methods.  The 
best  way  for  the  beginner  is  to  adopt  the  method  he  thinks 
he  would  prefer,  or  that  most  convenient  to  use,  and  follow 
it  until  he  has  a  good  reason  for  modifying  or  changing  it. 
No  one  can  tell  in  advance  which  system  will  suit  him 
best,  and  while  the  dry  feed  method  is  generally  safer  for 
novices  because  it  operates  as  a  check  on  some  of  the  other 
errors  they  are  most  likely  to  fall  into,  in  case  they  escape 
these  other  errors  the  features  of  the  dry  feed  system  which 
made  it  good  under  other  circumstances  may  be  the  very 
ones  that  will  make  it  unsuitable  for  them.  The  feeding 
system  must  fit  the  other  parts  of  one's  poultry  keeping, 
and  a  poultry  keeper  would  be  very  foolish  who  would  try 
to  make  his  methods  conform  to  any  well  defined  system 
after  it  became  apparent  to  him  that  in  his  case  modifica- 
tion of  either  system,  or  a  combination  of  the  two,  would 
work  to  better  advantage.  We  must  not  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  our  division  of  feeding  methods  into  two  general 
systems  is  an  arbitrary  distinction  which  has  no  practical 
use  beyond  what  can  be  done  by  thus  dividing  the  subject 
when  discussing  it  to  make  the  whole  question  of  feeding 
clearer  to  the  beginners  who  too  generally  assume  that 
there  is  one  best  method,  and  all  others  are  either  bad  or 
inferior  to  it. 

40.     What    Is    Dry   Feeding?  —  There   are   various 
methods  of  dry  feeding,  just  as  there  are  various  methods 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  73 

of  feeding  rations  composed  in  whole  or  part  of  mashes  or 
cakes.  The  grains  may  be  fed  all  whole  or  cracked,  or  a 
part  ground  and  mixed  together,  making  what  is  some- 
times called  a  "  dry  mash/'  The  feeding  may  be  in 
hoppers  or  troughs  with  food  before  the  chicks  for  the 
picking  all  the  time,  or  a  part  of  it  may  be  scattered  in 
litter  to  induce  them  to  take  exercise.*  Leaving  food  by 
small  chicks  is  not  very  generally  practiced,  for  so  many 
being  confined  in  a  small  space,  and  they  being  so  small, 
food  that  is  easily  accessible  to  them  is  very  likely^to  get 
fouled  with  their  droppings  and  with  their  running  over  it, 
and  in  that  condition  much  of  it  is  wasted,  or,  if  eaten, 
becomes  a  menace  to  health.  On  this  account  the  rule  of 
"  little  and  often  "  is  almost  universally  used  for  small 
chickens,  no  matter  what  the  food  used*  When  the  chicks 
become  large  enough  to  eat  out  of  troughs  or  hoppers 
so  constructed  that  they  cannot  foul  the  food  in  them,  many 
growers  of  both  broilers  and  roasters  keep  food  before  them 
all  the  time. 

Probably  four-fifths  of  all  the  dry  fed  chickens  are  not  fed 
ground  grains  in  a  dry  mash.  Most  growers  using  the  dry 
feed  system  either  buy  the  prepared  mixtures  of  small  and 
cracked  or  broken  grains  for  chicks  or  make  their  own 
mixtures.  The  commercial  mixtures  as  a  rule  contain  a 
much  greater  variety  of  grains  and  seeds  than  the  home 
made.  Some  of  them  also  contain  grit  much  in  excess  of 
what  is  required,  and  low  priced  grains  in  larger  propor- 
tion than  they  should  be  for  the  price  asked.  Hence  while 
it  is  often  assumed  that  the  prepared  food  is  a  boon  to  the 
poultryman  who  is  not  a  judge  of  foods,  the  fact  is  that  he 
needs  to  use  the  same  judgment  in  buying  prepared  mix- 
tures that  he  does  in  buying  straight  grain  products  of  vari- 


74  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

ous  kinds.  Admitting  that  the  proprietor  of  the  mixture 
with  his  expert  judgment  will  often  do  better  for  the  novice 
than  he  is  likely  to  do  for  himself,  it  is  still  true  that  the 
novice  pays  for  every  service  of  this  kind,  and  the  sooner 
he  is  able  to  dispense  with  such  services  the  more  eco- 
nomically he  will  grow  his  poultry. 

The  strong  point  in  favor  of  these  preparations  is  not 
that  they  are  cheaper,  or  better  than  poultry  keepers  car* 
make  for  themselves,  but  that  they  omit  nothing  that  is 
necessary,  and  provide  for  a  constant  variety.  Too  many 
poultry  keepers  of  some  experience,  as  well  as  novices,  fail 
to  provide  all  the  things  their  chicks  and  fowls  need  —  so 
that  they  can  have  them  as  they  need  them.  The  manufac- 
turers of  prepared  mixtures  of  various  kinds  take  account 
of  this  in  the  preparation  of  their  goods,  and  so  give  the 
poultrymen  an  article  which  makes  good  some  common 
shortcomings.  This  explains  why  so  many  people  are 
more  successful  with  prepared  foods. 

There  is  one  misapprehension  about  the  use  of  prepared 
foods  that,  in  the  interests  of  economy,  ought  to  be  removed 
from  any  mind  that  harbors  it.  The  impression  is  very 
general  that  prepared  foods  are  used  exclusively  by  many 
large  growers  of  broilers  and  roasters.  This  is  not  the 
case.  There  are  many  small  growers  using  prepared  foods 
exclusively,  but  the  large  growers,  and  in  fact  most  of  those 
who  figure  expenses  closely  use  the  prepared  mixtures  to 
start  the  chicks,  and  as  they  grow  older  change  to  part 
cheaper  grain,  generally  fine  cracked  corn,  the  proportion 
of  corn  being  gradually  increased  until  in  the  case  of  chicks 
reserved  for  roasters  they  are  on  an  almost  exclusive  cora 
(for  grain)  diet  when  three  or  four  months  old. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  75 

Now  the  question  comes  up  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  : — 
Which  of  the  mixed  foods  are  good  ?  One  is  generally- 
safe  in  buying  a  mixture  sold  by  a  reliable  supply  house. 
The  best  of  them  sometimes  make  mistakes,  but  a  house- 
that  has  a  reputation  to  maintain  will  make  its  mistakes- 
right,  and  .the  quality  of  its  goods  will  be  on  the  whole 
very  uniform.  There  are  a  number  of  exclusively  adver- 
tised and  well  known  brands  of  chick  feed  and  scratching^ 
feed  that  a  poultryman  can  buy  with  the  same  confidence 
with  which  he  buys  a  reliable  brand  of  flour.  Whether 
that  particular  brand  will  suit  him  as  well  as  another  canr 
only  be  ascertained  by  trial,  but  he  can  rely  on  its  contain- 
ing nothing  in  itself  harmful.  The  same  with  the  mixtures- 
frequently  made  and  sold  locally.  A  reputable  house  tries  to> 
serve  its  trade  well.  If  it  makes  mistakes,  they  are  honest 
mistakes,  which  it  corrects  as  soon  as  they  are  pointed  out. 

Where  then  is  the  need  of  judgment  on  the  part  of  the 
buyer  ?  Right  here :  Suppose  he  gets  a  hold  of  a  lot  of 
food  of  a  well  known  brand  not  up  to  quality  for  that 
brand,  lacking,  we  will  say,  in  some  one  of  the  important 
items  in  the  mixture.  Trusting  implicitly  in  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  goods,  he  may  not  notice  what  is  lacking  in  this- 
lot  until  he  has  occasion  to  look  for  a  reason  for  his  chicks- 
not  doing  as  well  as  usual.  It  takes  time  then  to  correct 
the  trouble,  and  the  loss  through  check  in  development  is- 
one  that  cannot  be  made  up.  I  emphasize  such  points  as- 
this  because  it  cannot  be  too  strongly  impressed  on  the 
beginner  in  poultry  culture,  that  no  merit  in  breed,  feedr 
or  method  is  so  sure  and  unchangeable  that  he  can  rely 
absolutely  upon  it.  On  the  contrary  experience  with  good 
fowls,  foods,  and  methods  should  educate  and  train  a  poul- 
tryman's  judgment  and  make  him  self-reliant,  and  he  misses* 


76  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

•one  of  the  advantages  of  buying  good  feeds  if  he  fails  to 
learn  from  them  to  judge  food  stuffs. 

The  ground  mixtures  for  chicks  cannot  be  as  freely  rec- 
ommended as  the  mixtures  of  cracked  and  broken  articles. 
In  general  they  contain  too  large  a  proportion  of  indigest- 
ible or  innutritious  waste  which  cannot  be  separated  from 
the  other  elements,  and  is  very  likely  to  cause  the  chicks 
to  eat  the  food  less  freely  than  is  desirable,  or  if  eaten 
cause  digestive  and  bowel  troubles.  Ground  mixtures  are 
tto  be  bought  only  after  careful  inspection,  and  used  always 
with  caution  whether  fed  wet  or  dry. 

41.     The  Feeding  Systems  in    Practice.  —  Young 

•chickens  require  no  food  for  from  twenty-four  to  thirty-six 
hours  after  hatching.  They  can  go  longer  without  it,  but 
in  general  they  are  ready  to  eat  a  little  bit  after  the  first 
-day.  At  first  they  eat  only  in  very  small  quantities.  Indeed 
in  feeding  a  brood  of  chicks  with  a  hen  one  can  hardly 
notice  that  the  hen  and  chicks  are  taking  any  more  than  the 
hen  would  until  they  are  several  weeks  old.  After  that  the 
•quantity  eaten  by  a  chick  increases  very  rapidly.  Most 
people  feed  far  too  much  at  a  time  to  their  small  chicks, 
with  the  result  that  much  food  is  soiled  and  wasted. 

When  brooder  chicks  are  fed  in  pans  or  troughs,  and 
feed  kept  before  them  most  of  the  time,  they  may  not  take 
as  much  exercise  as  is  needed  to  keep  them  out  of  mischief 
and  in  good  condition.  A  lot  of  chicks  with  nothing  to  do 
often  develop  some  troublesome  vice,  like  cannibalism,  or 
standing  idly  around  ;  there  being  no  inducement  to  take 
•exercise,  their  blood  circulates  sluggishly,  they  feel  cold, 
and  the  attendant  observer  observes  the  phenomenon,  often 
considered  as  something  of  a  mystery,  of  chicks  huddling 
together  and  to  the  heat  when  the  thermometer  indicates  a 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  77- 

temperature  at  which  they  ought  to  be  comfortable,  well 
spread  out  under  the  pipes.  A  little  litter  on  the  floor  and 
a  handful  or  two  of  grain  in  this  for  the  chicks  to  work  for 
will  often  make  a  surprising  change  in  their  behavior 
toward  the  heat.  This  scratching  grain  should  be  givens 
even  when  most  of  the  food  is  fed  in  troughs  or  hoppers* 
The  chicks  will  often  leave  the  grain  that  is  easy  to  get  and 
scratch  busily  for  what  can  only  be  obtained  by  working 
for  it.  It  is  the  chick  nature  to  do  that  way.  Compulsory- 
scratching  is  not  needed  for  small  chicks  unless  they  have 
become  so  sluggish  that  they  will  take  no  exercise  until 
forced  to  do  so,  but  the  opportunity  to  scratch  should 
always  be  given  brooder  chicks  until  they  are  to  be  fattened- 
With  abundance  of  food  to  be  had  without  scratching  they 
will  exercise  just  about  enough  to  keep  them  in  condition. 
Many  a  time  I  have  seen  a  brooder  full  of  chicks  cured  of 
a  mysterious  indisposition  by  simply  giving  them  oppor- 
tunity and  slight  inducement  to  take  exercise. 

It  is  especially  necessary  to  look  out  for  this  when  the 
chicks  are  confined  constantly  or  for  long  periods  indoors. 
When  they  get  out  the  change  from  inner  to  outer  air  stim- 
ulates them,  the  sun  is  a  tonic,  and  there  is  variety  enough 
in  their  little  lives  to  keep  them  in  motion,  but  in  the  house 
on  dull  days  they  want  something  special  to  do. 

When  chicks  go  "  off  their  feed  "  and  eat  mincingly, 
though  there  seems  nothing  in  particular  wrong,  it  is  apt 
to  be  because  they  are  overfed,  and  nothing  will  bring  them 
out  of  this  quicker  than  to  let  them  go  without  feed  until 
they  are  ready  to  eat  with  appetite.  If  they  have  been  fed 
every  two  hours  or  so,  skipping  a  single  meal  often  gives^ 
their  digestive  apparatus  a  chance  to  adjust  itself  for  a  fresh 
start.  If  food  is  kept  before  them  constantly,  and  they  da 


y8  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

not  seem  to  eat  right,  remove  it  for  a  few  hours  and  they 
^vill  be  ready  to  eat  a  good  ration  when  it  is  returned  to 
them,  and  thus  get  back  into  regular  habits. 

How  Often  and  How  Much  to  Feed: 

The  small  chick,  as  has  been  said,  takes  its  food  in 
almost  infinitesimal  quantities  at  first,  but  it  wants  its  meals 
•often.  If  only  what  the  chicks  clean  up  within  a  few 
minutes  is  given  them  at  each  feeding  they  will  eat  about 
once  in  two  hours.  As  they  take  food  in  larger  quantities 
it  will  be  found  that  two  hour  intervals  between  feeds  are 
loo  short,  if  the  chicks  are  given  all  they  will  eat  at  each 
meal.  Some  keep  the  chicks  in  good  appetite  by  continu- 
ing feeding  at  two  hour  intervals,  but  never  feeding  the 
^chicks  all  they  want ;  others  give  the  chicks  what  they  will 
-eat,  and  lengthen  the  intervals  between  feeds  as  much  as 
necessary  to  keep  the  appetite  hearty.  The  latter  way  I 
think  the  better  one.  It  reduces  labor,  and  it  is  more 
natural.  With  broilers  one  will  not  get  much  beyond  three 
hour  periods  between  meals,  but  with  roasters  he  can  soon 
get  on  a  three-meals-a-day  basis. 

For  quantity  no  definite  rule  can  be  given.  It  is  desirable 
vto  have  the  chicks  eat  all  they  can  digest,  and  that  will 
vary  with  their  digestive  capacity  as  well  as  with  the  com- 
position and  quality  of  the  food.  The  feeder  should  aim 
to  have  a  diet  that  will  be  eaten  freely  and  digested  without 
inconvenience.  With  such  a  .ration,  with  the  necessary 
exercise  and  other  accessories,  there  is  little  danger  of  over- 
feeding, and  he  may  be  liberal  to  the  point  where  waste  of 
food  begins. 

In  a  mixture  of  grains  the  chicks  get  variety  in  every 
tneal.  When  for  the  sake  of  economy  it  is  desired  to  feed 
as  much  as  is  desirable  of  a  cheap  grain,  it  may  either  be 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  jy 

made  the  larger  part  of  a  mixture,  or  may  be  fed  separately 
several  times  a  day,  the  other  feeds,  given  alternately  with 
it,  furnishing  greater  variety.  Cracked  corn  is  a  favorite 
food  with  nearly  all  growers  of  market  poultry  for  this  rea- 
son, and  is  mostly  used  in  larger  quantities  than  any  other 
one  ingredient  in  both  wet  and  dry  feeding.  At  the  prices 
that  usually  obtain  comparatively  little  wheat  or  other 
grains  is  used  by  large  growers.  Those  who  use  mashes 
alternate  them  with  cracked  corn.  Those  who  feed  dry 
alternate  cracked  corn  with  a  more  expensive  mixture  until 
the  chicks  are  several  weeks  old,  and  considered  past  "  the 
danger  period."  After  that  the  larger  growers  nearly 
all  get  down  as  near  as  possible  to  a  diet  of  corn,  meat 
scraps  and  some  green  stuff,  no  more  of  other  ground  or 
whole  grains  being  used  than  is  necessary  to  mix  with  corn 
meal  in  cake  or  mash  or  to  relieve  the  monotony  of  an  all 
corn  grain  ration.  The  soft  roaster  growers  feed  prac- 
tically nothing  but  cracked  corn,  meat  scrap,  and  green 
food  to  their  chickens  after  taking  them  from  the  brooder 
houses  and  placing  them  in  lots  of  fifty  in  such  houses  as 
that  illustrated  on  page  53,  or  in  corresponding  larger  lots 
in  the  slightly  larger  colony  houses  sometimes  used. 

42.  Green  Food. — Neither  green  food  nor  meat  is 
absolutely  essential  in  the  diet  of  young  chicks.  They 
have  often  been  known  to  grow  and  thrive  for  weeks  with- 
out either.  But  growth  is  generally  better,  the  chicks 
healthier,  and  the  risks  in  handling  them  less  when  green 
food  and  meat  food  are  supplied  practically  from  the  first. 
For  green  food  there  is  nothing  better  than  cabbage,  which 
can  be  fed  by  putting  a  head,  leaves,  stump  and  all  in  the 
pen  and  letting  the  chicks  pick  it  to  pieces.  There  is  no 


8o  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

need  of  cutting  it  up  for  them.  They  can  do  it  for  them- 
selves, and  get  good  exercise  while  doing  it.  They  will 
clean  up  all  but  the  toughest  fibres  of  the  stump  and  root. 
After  cabbage  there  are  other  foods  which  are  sometimes 
grown  in  boxes  or  frames  for  winter  chickens.  Lettuce, 
wheat,  oats,  are  all  used;  but  such  things  can  hardly  be 
produced  profitably  for  large  numbers  of  chicks,  and  the 
careful  grower  of  winter  chickens  will  make  due  effort  to 
have  an  ample  supply  of  cabbage.  On  land  where  roast- 
ers are  grown  cabbage  can  be  set  out  after  the  bulk  of  the 
crop  of  chickens  is  marketed  in  June  or  July,  and  in  an 
ordinary  season  will  have  ample  time  to  make  a  good  crop 
of  inexpensive  green  food  for  the  next  crop  of  chickens. 

A  favorite  crop  with  growers  of  both  broilers  and  roast- 
ers is  winter  rye.  When  there  is  little  snow  during  the 
winter  the  chickens  can  get  what  green  food  they  need  on 
the  patches  of  rye  in  the  yards  or  near  the  houses,  while 
whatever  the  winter,  the  rye  furnishes  green  food  for  the 
growing  roasters  in  spring  long  before  grass  or  other  green 
crops  are  available.  When  dry  feeding  is  the  method 
employed  it  is  more  important  that  the  chicks  get  some 
succulent  food,  and  if  such  green  foods  as  have  been  men- 
tioned are  not  available  root  vegetables  may  be  fed  raw. 

43.  Feeding  Meat. — In  feeding  meat  to  chicks  being 
reared  artificially  one  must  be  more  careful  than  with 
chicks  at  liberty  with  hens.  Under  natural  conditions 
chicks  often  stand  foods  which  soon  show  bad  effects  when 
fed  under  artificial  conditions.  Meat  meal  of  poor  quality, 
really  not  fit  for  anything  but  fertilizer,  may  be  fed  in 
moderate  quantities  to  grown  fowls  and  to  chicks  with  hens 
without  bad  effects,  but  the  grower  using  artificial  methods 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS.  8 1 

finds  it  not  safe  to  use  meat  meals  or  scraps  except  such 
as  are  of  good  quality,  sound  and  sweet.  A  great  deal  of 
trouble  with  brooder  chicks  is  due  to  poor  quality  meat, 
which  the  user  does  not  suspect  because  he  observes  no 
bad  results  from  feeding  it  to  other  stock.  Of  green  cut 
bone,  cut  very  fine,  all  the  chicks  will  eat  may  be  fed  if 
they  get  it  every  few  days.  The  cut  bone  should  not  be 
sour  or  heating. 

In  dry  feeding  the  meat  meal  or  scrap  used  is  fed  sepa- 
rately, kept  before  the  chicks  all  the  time.  In  wet  feeding 
the  prepared  meat  foods- are  generally  mixed  with  the  cake 
or  mash  in  proportion  of  about  five  to  ten  per  cent  of  the 
bulk  of  its  ingredients  when  dry.  The  proportion  should 
be  governed  in  part  by  the  quantity  of  mash  fed  during  the 
day.  If  the  mash  is  fed  only  once  a  day  ten  per  cent,  or 
even  more,  of  most  brands  of  prepared  meat  is  not  too 
much.  If  two  or  three  mashes  are  feel  a  day  the  amount 
may  either  be  distributed  through  them  or  fed  all  at  one 
time,  the  other  mashes  containing  no  meat.  For  rapid 
forcing  the  amount  of  meat  scrap  may  be  very  much 
increased,  but  until  one  has  had  experience  enough  in 
handling  chickens  to  recognize  bad  effects  of  overfeeding 
meat  as  soon  as  they  appear  he  had  best  use  small  portions 
of  meat  in  the  mash  and  give  a  part  of  the  meat  separately. 
To  be  sure  he  might  feed  all  meat  separate,  and  none  in 
the  mash,  but  it  is  nearly  always  found  that  a  mash  with 
some  meat  in  it  is  eaten  with  greater  relish.  As  to  the 
limit  of  the  amount  of  meat  that  can  be  given,  I  have 
known  growers  use  as  much  as  one-fifth  meat  in  a  mash 
fed  several  times  a  day.  I  would  not  advise  a  novice  to  use 
so  much,  except  perhaps  for  a  short  period  before  killing. 


82  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

44.  Drink. — Water,  fresh  as  often  as  is  necessary  to 
have  it  reasonably  clean,   is  as  necessary    as    good    food. 
When  we  speak  of  cleanliness  in  matters  concerning  poul- 
try we  always   mean  relatively  clean.      Perfect  cleanliness 
is  practically  out  of  the  question  in  the  poultry  yard.      The 
poultry  keeper  must  learn  to  draw  the  distinction  between 
things  that  have   some   dirt   on  them   and  things   that  are 
dirty.     Within  limits  he  can  tolerate  the  former,  the  latter 
he  should  not   have  about  his  premises.     A  little   of    the 
dust  from  the  floor  on  the  water,  even  a  little  excrement  in 
it  does  not  constitute  a   serious  risk,   but   drinking  vessels 
allowed  to   get  slimy   and  nasty   are   a   common    cause  of 
trouble.      Clean   them  as  often  as   necessary  to   have  the 
vessel  clean,  (a  good  rinsing  once  a  day  should  be  enough) 
but  don't  think  it  necessary  to  empty   a  vessel  and  put  in 
fresh  water  if  a  tiny  bit  of  the  droppings  falls  in  it.     That 
is  the  kind  of  work  that  takes   up  so  much  of  the  time  of 
some  poultrymen  that  they   do    not    find  time   to  do  other 
more  necessary  things. 

Milk  is  good  for  chicks,  whether  given  as  a  drink  or 
used  to  mix  the  mash.  Slightly  scalded  milk  is  good  to 
correct  a  simple  diarrhea.  In  giving  it  to  brooder  chicks 
as  a  drink  it  is  better  to  use  a  drinking  fountain,  even  if 
fountains  are  not  used  for  water,  for  dabbling  in  milk  the 
chickens  smear  each  other  up  and  make  a  bad  mess. 
Whether  milk  -is  given  or  not  the  chicks  will  want  water, 
and  should  have  it. 

45.  Grit. — Growers  of  chicks  using  artificial  methods 
generally  consider   it  of   greatest  importance    to    keep  the 
chicks  constantly  and  liberally  supplied  with  grit.     Many 
of  them  give  grit  before  they  give  any  food,  claiming  that 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS.  83 

it  is  necessary.  In  this  they  are  probably  wrong,  for  it  is 
certain  that  many  lots  of  chicks  have  got  along  very  well 
without  grit,  and  I  have  had  reports  on  a  good  many  cases 
where  there  was  good  reason  to  suspect  that  chicks  kept 
too  long  without  food,  but  given  grit  freely,  swallowed 
much  more  grit  than  was  good  for  them  with  the  result 
that  the  digestive  apparatus  became  deranged  at  the  start. 
Chicks  need  some  grit,  but  not  more  than  they  will  take 
freely  when  well  fed.  If  prepared  chick  foods  are  used 
for  even  half  the  ration  there  will  not  often  be  need  of  sup- 
plying more  grit  than  these  contain.  There  is  probably 
none  of  them  in  which  the  proportion  of  grit  is  too  small, 
and  many  contain  several  times  more  than  is  necessary. 
When  chicks  are  fed  wholly  on  preparations  containing  no 
grit  they  should  always  have  access  to  a  supply  of  it. 
Their  need  of  it  seems  to  depend  on  the  food  given  them, 
and  to  vary  much  in  different  chicks. 

46.  Charcoal. — The  charcoal  question  is  very  like  the 
grit  question.  Many  growers  keep  it  before  the  chicks. 
Some  chicks  thrive  without  it.  Its  properties  being  such 
that  it  aids  digestion  and  purifies  the  blood,  it  is  clear  that 
the  need  of  it  will  exist,  and  the  beneficial  effects  be  appar- 
ent in  case  of  chicks  that  have  weak  digestion  or  indiges- 
tion, or  poor  circulation,  as  it  would  not  in  chicks  that 
were  in  good  condition.  Considering  the  number  of  suc- 
cessful growers  who  use  no  charcoal,  it  cannot  be  said  that 
there  is  as  much  need  of  keeping  it  always  before  chicks, 
but  if  chicks  are  not  thrifty  it  is  one  of  the  simple  things 
to  supply  before  changing  foods  or  beginning  to  give 
medicines. 


84  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


CHAPTER    Vlf. 


Some  General  Points  on   Roasters. 


47.     Peculiarities  of  "South  Shore"  Methods.— 

As  the  broiler  goes  direct  from  the  brooder  to  market  the 
broiler  growers'  problems  in  management  do  not  go  beyond 
the  methods  of  handling  chickens  in  brooder  houses.  The 
grower  of  large  roasters  has  to  consider  how  best  to  carry 
his  crop  —  some  of  which  was  developed  enough  to  be 
sold  for  broilers  early  in  the  winter  —  to  the  season  of 
high  prices  in  the  following  summer*  He  saves  in  feed 
by  using  the  lowest  priced  grain  (corn),  and  in  cost  of 
feeding  by  keeping  food  standing  before  the  chickens  all 
the  time.  The  usual  way  to  feed  these  chickens  is  to  have 
in  each  house  a  trough  or  hopper  of  cracked  corn,  another 
of  beef  scrap,  and  a  pail  of  water.  While  the  supply  of 
cabbage  lasts,  cabbage  is  given  frequently  ;  after  that  the 
only  green  food  the  chicks  get  is  the  rye  they  pick  for 
themselves  when  the  snow  is  off  the  ground.  As  snow 
rarely  lies  long  in  that  locality,  they  are  seldom  long  with- 
out green  food. 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS.  85 

To  most  poultry  keepers  the  incomprehensible  thing 
about  the  methods  used  here  is  that  crowding  the  weaned 
chicks  so  densely  in  small  houses  does  not  result  in  losses 
such  as  under  ordinary  circumstances  attend  crowding  that 
does  not  seem  to  be  anything  like  as  bad  as  that  practiced 
here.  The  reason  is  found  in  a  very  radical  difference  in 
the  way  the  houses  are  used.  The  ordinary  way  is  to  shut 
up  the  houses.  The  method  in  use  here  is  to  let  in  plenty 
of  air.  The  house  is  never  shut  close.  Either  window 
or  door  is  always  open,  and  oftener  both  are  open.  With 
plenty  of  air  the  chickens,  though  crowded  for  room,  get 
along  quite  comfortably,  even  when  a  storm  keeps  them  in 
the  house  for  several  days.  The  system  of  feeding  makes 
the  droppings  quite  dry,  and,  as  a  rule,  the  difficulty  of 
handling  crowded  fowls  that  have  loose  droppings  does 
not  have  to  be  considered.  The  chickens  can  stay  in  the 
houses  for  a  few  days,  or  a  week  may  pass  without  the 
droppings  being  removed.  Of  course  cleaning  up  with 
the  chickens  in  the  house  is  out  of  the  question. 

When  warmer  weather  comes  the  chickens  still  remain 
in  the  houses  at  night  and  as  much  as  they  wish  through 
the  day,  but  are  practically  free  to  go  where  they  please. 
They  never  go  far.  The  growers  here  believe  in  placing 
no  restraints  on  them  outdoors,  and  depend  on  the  supply 
of  food  in  the  house  to  keep  them  from  roaming  far. 
They  say  that  the  well  fed  chicken  will  not  want  to  go  far, 
while  the  chicken  that  is  not  confined  is  contented,  and  so 
keeps  in  better  condition  at  less  cost. 

Their  system  is  perhaps  not  in  every  respect  ideal.  It 
has  defects  which  need  not  be  dwelt  upon  here.  But  not- 
withstanding these  defects,  the  fact  remains  that  these 


86  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

growers  are  producing  far  the  best  poultry  that  goes  to  the 
American  market  in  quantity,  and  that  they  are,  as  a  class, 
making  more  on  their  investment  and  labor  than  any  other 
class  of  poultry  keepers  in  this  country.  That  being  the 
case,  it  would  be  superfluous  to  discuss  improving  their 
system  here.  When  the  reader  has  paralleled  their  success 
by  their  methods  —  which  are  the  methods  which,  to  date, 
have  given  the  best  all  round  results  —  he  will  be  ready  to 
consider  how  to  improve  them  —  if  they  then  seem  to  him 
to  need  improving. 

An  important  feature  of  the  system  used  here  is  the  thor- 
ough cleaning  up  of  the  houses  and  yards  once  a  year.  As 
there  is  a  period  of  two  or  three  months  between  the  mar- 
keting of  the  last  of  one  crop  and  the  setting  of  the  first 
incubator  for  the  next,  and  at  this  time  there  is  not  a 
chicken  or  fowl  in  the  houses  used  for  growing  stock,  it  is 
possible  to  give  the  houses  and  land  adjoining  them  a  more 
thorough  cleaning  up  than  the  ordinary  plant  ever  gets. 
The  earth  floors  of  the  houses  are  removed  and  liew  earth 
or  sand  hauled  in.  The  fences,  wire  netting  on  stakes, 
are  taken  up  and  the  land  plowed  and  planted  to  some  crop 
for  next  winter's  chickens  —  generally  to  winter  rye. 

48.  Caponizing. — The  cockerels  of  the  winter  chick- 
ens grown  for  roasters  are  caponized,  but  are  not  dressed 
like  or  sold  as  capons.  Cockerels  and  pullets  alike  go  to 
the  market  as  large  roasting  chickens.  The  operation  of 
caponizing  need  not  be  described  here.  The  reader  who 
wants  to  learn  caponizing  should  learn  from  an  expert 
operator  if  possible,  or  failing  that  should  use  the  full 
instructions  which  special  books  on  caponizing  give. 

Chickens    grown  for  summer  roasters  and  marketed  at 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  87 

four  or  five  pounds  weight  need  not  be  caponized.  As 
market  demands  are  now  there  is  little  advantage  in  capon- 
izing  except  for  cockerels  that  must  be  held  beyond  the  age 
at  which  their  meat  begins  to  harden. 

49.  Spring  Hatched  Roasters.  —  The  small  and 
medium  sized  roasters  marketed  in  summer  and  early  fall 
are  mostly  cockerels  from  the  spring  hatches  of  poultrymen 
producing  chickens*  for  laying  or  stock  purposes,  but  a 
proportion  of  those  coming  from  nearby  points  to  the  large 
markets  is  stock  of  both  sexes  either  produced  expressly 
for  roasters  or  started  for  broilers,  and  for  some  reason 
carried  over.  The  spring  hatched  roasters  can  be  handled 
just  the  same  as  the  winter  chickens  after  weaning,  but 
they  are  not  caponized  unless  they  are  to  be  grown  to  full 
size  and  sold  the  following  winter,  and  little  of  that  is  done 
except  in  a  few  localities  wrhere  caponizing  is  quite  general 
among  the  farmers.  The  capons  produced  in  this  way  are 
much  superior  to  old  cocks  and  staggy  cockerels,  but  do 
not  compare  with  the  South  Shore  chickens  or  with  the 
best  small  and  medium  roasters  from  uncaponized  stock  as 
marketed  in  the  summer.  The  grower  who  sells  cockerels, 
as  roasters  must,  however,  look  sharp  in  disposing  of  them 
and  let  as  few  as  possible  stay  in  his  yards  long  enough  to 
become  "  staggy."  It  is  always  advisable  to  work  them  off 
a  little  small  but  soft,  rather  than  have  the  weight  gained 
hard  meat. 


88  BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


Fattening. 


SO.  Fattening  Broilers. —  A  fat  broiler  is  quite  a 
Tarity.  The  best  that  can  be  done,  in  general,  is  to  have 
them  plump.  From  what  I  have  seen  of  broilers  in  the 
•markets  and  on  exhibition  I  think  that  a  grower  will  be 
more  successful  in  getting  plump  specimens  by  selecting 
and  breeding  for  that  quality  than  Ijy  trying  to  fatten  slim 
specimens  of  five  or  six  weeks  old  chicks.  However,  for 
chicks  that  are  not  plump  something  must  be  done.  The 
usual  way  is  to  feed  a  mash  of  about  two-thirds  corn  meal 
and  one-third  bran.  To  this  some  breeders  add  molasses 
and  cotton  seed  meal,  some  ten  per  cent  cotton  seed  meal 
and  twenty-five  to  thirty  per  cent  beef  scraps.  Such  heavy 
feeding  of  rich  foods  is  accompanied  by  a  good  deal  of 
risk,  and  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  grower  to  hurt  his 
chicks  more  than  he  helps  them  by  it. 

The  natural  tendency  of  the  chick  is  to  turn  all  nutri- 
ment to  growth  and  development,  and  it  may  do  this  with 
a  "  fattening "  ration  —  until  the  digestive  system  goes  to 
pieces  as  the  result  of  high  feeding.  The  fattening  of 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS.  89 

broilers  is,  therefore,  an  operation  to  be  conducted  by  the 
novice  with  great  care.  It  is  better  for  him  to  be  satisfied 
at  first  with  marketing  them  in  just  good  condition  than  to 
make  losses  by  attempts  to  use  extreme  fattening  methods. 
As  he  grows  in  experience  he  can  gradually  approach 
these  methods,  going  as  far  with  them  as  he  finds  safe  for 
Jiim. 

51.  Fattening  Roasters. — As  a  chicken  matures  and 
requires  less  and  less  food  for  growing  bone,  muscle,  and 
feathers,  the  food  consumed  in  excess  of  these  requirements 
goes  to  reproduction  or  to  fat,  according  to  constitutional 
tendencies  and  to  conditions.  The  growers  of  soft  roasters 
have  a  considerable  proportion  of  their  pullets  begin  to  lay 
some  weeks  or  even  months  before  it  is  desired  to  sell 
them,  and  all  such  are  sold  immediately,  because  after  lay- 
ing begins  the  meat  becomes  harder  and  dryer  —  more  like 
that  of  an  old  hen.  Other  pullets  will  keep  right  on  grow- 
ing and  not  fatten  until  well  on  in  the  season.  A  propor- 
tion of  the  caponized  cockerels  also  develop  into  slips,  and 
the  meat  becomes  hard  and  unfit  for  the  trade  for  which  it 
was  designed.  The  bulk  of  the  crop,  however,  is  generally 
carried  to  early  summer  in  good  flesh.  Then  if  more  fat- 
tening is  needed  it  is  accomplished  on  the  same  feeding 
that  has  been  used  for  the  chickens  since  weaning,  by 
merely  confining  them  more  closely  so  that  they  may  keep 
quiet  and  let  the  fat  accumulate.  About  ten  days  confine- 
n  ent —  in  pen  and  small  yard  —  will  usually  make  healthy 
chickens  in  good  condition  as  fat  as  is  desirable.  For  years 
I  have  fattened  cockerels  for  f rys  and  roasters  on  either  the 
same  ration  the  growing  stock  was  getting,  or  this  ration 
changed  merely  by  using  more  meal  in  the  mash,  and  all 


^O  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

cracked  corn  for  grain.  Cockerels  so  treated  before  sex- 
ual characters  are  strongly  developed  will,  if  they  have 
grown  steadily  and  well  from  the  start,  make  as  fine  and 
tender  meat  as  can  be  produced,  and  cockerels  of  slow 
maturing  stocks  will  be  soft  meated  until  quite  full  grown. 

52.     Difficulty  of  Fattening  in  Hot  Weather.  —  In 

very  warm  weather  it  is  sometimes  impossible  to  fatten 
chickens  by  ordinary  feeding  methods  because  the  chickens 
either  will  not  eat  a  heavy  ration  freely,  or  are  almost 
immediately  upset  by  it.  It  is  in  such  emergencies  that 
the  grower  is  led  to  consider  special  fattening  by  the  use 
of  the  cramming  machine.  These  occasions  have  been  so 
scattering  and  so  rare  that  no  extended  interest  in  special 
fattening  methods  has  yet  developed  among  growers  of  the 
best  grades  of  market  poultry,  and  I  consider  it  altogether 
improbable  that  European  methods  of  fattening  will  obtain 
in  this  country  within  our  generation,  except  to  improve 
poultry  not  properly  grown  by  the  growers. 


BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 


CHAPTER     IX. 


Selling    and   Preparing  for    Sale. 


53.  Selling  Alive  and  Dressed. — The  question  of 
selling  alive  or  dressed  was  briefly  mentioned  on  page  55,' 
As  there  stated,  the  decision  as  to  which  is  the  better  way 
to  sell  must  be  made  by  each  grower  for  himself.  jThe 
grower  located  where  there  are  many  persons  producing 
poultry,  and  collectors  making  regular  trips  buying  poul- 
try, will  generally,  if  —  as  we  must  suppose  —  the  practice 
of  most  thrifty  growers  indicates  what  is  best  to  be  done, 
find  it  more  satisfactory  to  sell  both  broilers  and  roasters 
alive.  But  many  are  so  situated  that  they  cannot  sell  alive 
to  so  good  advantage,  while  all  who  sell  to  retail  or  private 
family  trade  must  sell  dressed.  If  one  does  not  know  how 
to  dress  poultry  it  is  better  to  hire  an  expert  picker  at  so 
much  per  chick  or  fowl.  Many  small  growers  about 
Boston  have  the  marketmen  to  whom  they  sell  send  them 
a  picker  whenever  they  have  enough  chickens  ready  to 
dress  to  keep  a  man  busy  for  a  day  or  more.  A  grower 
retailing  his  fowls  should  learn  to  dress  them  himself. 


.92  BROILERS    AND    ROASTERS. 

For  such  the  instructions  which  follow  are  a  help ;  but  to 
.really  learn  how  to  do  such  work  well  and  expeditiously 
iinost  people  need  personal  instruction,  and  for  one  who 
has  to  do  it  in  his  business,  it  is  worth  while  to  go  and 
work  for  a  week  or  two  in  an  establishment  where  poultry 
is  dressed  by  the  thousands. 

54.  Methods    of  Picking. —  There  are  two   methods 
of  picking  fowls — dry  picking,  in  which  the  feathers  are 
removed   dry,  after  the  bird  has  been  bled   and  stunned, 
while  the  fowl  is  dying;  and  scalding,  in  which,  after  life 
is  extinct,  the  bird  is   immersed  in   scalding,  not  boiling, 
water  just  enough  to  steam  and  loosen  the  feathers,  which 
are  then  much  more  easily   removed  than  by  dry  picking. 
A  properly  scalded  fowl  when  picked  presents  as  attract- 
ive a  carcass  as  a  dry  picked   one,  but  while  it  is  easier  to 
remove  the   feathers  when  the  scalding  is  done  right,  so 
much  of  the  scalding  is   done   wrong  that  in  the  markets 
where  choice  poultry  brings  best  prices,  scalding   is  in  dis- 
repute, and  the  best  of  scalded  poultry  usually  sells  a  few 
cents,  two  or  three,  below  dry  picked  poultry  of  the  same 

-quality  at  wholesale.  I  am  inclined  to  doubt  that  the 
retailers  give  the  difference  to  their  customers.  The 
grower  dressing  stock  for  eastern  markets  should  dry  pick 
it.  Unless  a  grower  is  expert  in  scalding  he  will  find  it 
to  his  advantage  to  dry  pick  for  any  market,  for  there  is 
much  less  danger  of  his  making  his  poultry  look  bad. 

55.  Methods     of     Killing. —  Fowls    that   are    to  be 
scalded  and  sold  with  head  off  may  be  killed  by  cutting  off 
the  head   with  a  hatchet  —  the  common  way  through  the 
larger  part  of  the  country.     If  to  be  sold,  as  in  most  large 
.markets,  with  head   on,   they   must  be  killed  by  bleeding, 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS.  93; 

sticking  either  in  the  mouth  or  neck.  The  former  method 
gives  the  best  looking  carcass,  as  there  is  no  outward  dis- 
figuring wound,  but  as  bleeding  in  the  mouth,  unless  skill- 
fully done,  may  not  allow  the  fowl  to  bleed  thoroughly,  an 
inexperienced  killer  will  find  it  better  to  stick  in  the  neck 
when  dressing  for  sale  —  at  least  until  by  practice  on  birds 
to  be  consumed  at  home,  he  learns  to  kill  by  sticking  in 
the  mouth.  For  this  purpose  special  killing  knives  for 
poultry  are  made,  which  may  be  obtained  of  any  supply 
house. 

In  general,  a  New  England  killer  works  sitting  down 
with  a  coop  of  live  chickens  at  his  left,  a  box  for  feathers 
at  his  right,  and  a  pail  to  catch  the  blood  between  his  feet. 
Taking  the  chicken  under  his  left  arm,  with  the  head  in 
his  left  hand,  while  the  body  is  held  fast  between  his  arm 
and  side,  he  holds  the  mouth  open  with  the  thumb  and  fore 
finger  of  the  left  hand,  while  with  tjie  knife  held  in  the 
right,  he  makes  a  deep  cut  across  the  mouth  to  penetrate 
the  brain,  then  turning  the  knife  makes  a  long  cut  toward 
the  point  of  the  bill,  to  allow  free  bleeding.  Next  with  a 
short  club  he  stuns  the  bird  by  striking  on  the  back  of  the 
head,  then  begins  to  remove  the  feathers.  In  some  estab- 
lishments where  many  pickers  were  working  on  large 
fowls,  I  have  seen  pickers  go  to  the  coop,  get  their  fowl, 
stand  while  killing  and  stunning  it,  then  sit  down  to  pick. 

The  u  New  Jersey  "  method  is  to  hang  the  fowl  by  the 
feet  by  a  cord  suspended  from  a  hook  or  beam,  and  in  this 
position  stick  and  dry  pick  it.  In  some  killing  houses  one 
man  kills  and  rough  picks,  while  one  or  two  more  remove 
the  pin-feathers  from  the  fowls  he  kills ;  in  others  each 
picker  kills  and  picks  clean  his  own  birds.  Some  remark- 


94 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 


able  stories  are   told  about  rapid  picking,  but  it  is  a .  good 
picker  that  picks  clean  70  or  80  chickens  a  day. 

56.  Cooling  Poultry. —  As  soon  as  a  carcass  is  picked 
clean  it  should  be  put  in  cold  water  to  cool.     The  quicker 
the  animal  heat  is  out  of  it,  the  better  it  will  keep.     Tubs, 
barrels  or  tanks  should  be  used  according  to  the  quantity 
of  poultry  to  be  cooled,  and   unless  arrangement  is  made 
for  running  water  through  whatever  receptacles  the  poultry 
is  cooled  in  the  water  should  be  frequently  changed.      The 
common  practice  is  to  put  the   carcass  first  in  a  barrel  or 
vat,  and  after  it  has  remained  there  for  a  quarter  to  half 
hour,  or  even   longer,   wash  the  blood    from    the  mouth, 
clean  the  feet,  and  pass  to  another  cooling  barrel  or  tank. 

In  cold  weather  carcasses 
cooled  in  water  for  from 
five  or  six  to  ten  or  twelve 
hours  may  then  be  taken 
from  the  water  and  hung 
up  to  dry  —  where  they 
will  not  freeze.  They  are 
then  ready  to  be  packed 
the  first  thing  in  the 
morning.  If  it  is  very 
Method  of  Packing  Poultry  in  Boxes.  warm,  or  if  the  carcasses 
.exposed  to  the  air  would  freeze,  they  should  be  kept  in 
water  until  they  are  to  be  packed,  then  after  having  been 
Allowed  to  drain  for  a  few  minutes  they  are  —  if  packed 
dry — wiped  dry  before  being  packed.  If  to  be  iced 
they  of  course  need  not  be  dried  off. 

57.  Packing  Poultry  for  Shipment. —  Poultry  that 
does  not  require  to  be  iced  to  preserve  it  while  in  transit  is 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS.  95 

best  packed  in  boxes.  The  illustration  on  page  94  shows 
the  method  of  packing  in  boxes.  The  dimensions  of  the 
box  to  be  used  will  depend  on  the  size  of  stock  and  quantity 
to  be  shipped  at  one  time.  Boxes  for  roasters  should  be 
1 6  to  20  inches  wide.  For  broilers  they  may  be  narrower, 
or  one  may  use  wide  boxes,  putting  two  rows  of  carcasses 
in  each  layer.  When  poultry  has  to  be  iced  for  shipment 
it  is  packed  in  barrels.  A  layer  of  broken  ice  is  put  in 
first,  then  a  layer  of  poultry,  then  a  layer  of  ice  and  a  layer 
of  poultry  until  the  barrel  is  full.  In  packing  poultry  in 
barrels  the  packer  begins  his  layer  in  the  middle  and  packs 
heads  down,  backs  up,  and  feet  toward  the  center.  After 
filling,  the  barrels  are  headed  with  burlap.  This  insures 
their  being  kept  right  side  up. 

58.  Shipping. —  Except  in  settled  cold  weather  poul- 
try should  be  shipped  by  express.  The  delays  in  freight 
shipments  cause  more  risk  of  deterioration  and  shrinkage 
than  it  is  wise  to  take.  A  shipper  should  not  send  ship- 
ments hit  or  miss  at  his  convenience,  but  should  find  out 
all  about  the  route  his  shipments  must  take,  and  arrange  to 
have  them  en  route  as  short  a  time  as  possible.  Prompt 
delivery  of  goods  means  a  great  deal  sometimes  in  the 
returns  from  them,  and  dressed  poultry  spoils  so  easily 
when  exposed  to  bad  conditions  that  wise  shippers  take  no 
unnecessary  chances. 


96 


BROILERS    AND     ROASTERS. 

JEX 


Adaptability  of  breeds,  24. 
American  market  requirements,  15. 
Appliances,  miscellaneous,  55. 

Beef  scraps,  81. 

Bowel  trouble.  66. 

Broiler,  defined  and  described,  4. 

Brooders,  35. 

Brooders,  operating,  61. 

Brooding  systems.  H5. 

Buying  eggs  indiscriminately,  23. 

Cabbage,  79. 

Caponizing,86. 

Cel  lars  for  incubators,  37. 

Charcoal,  82. 

Chickens,  kind  of  poultry  marketed  as,  4. 

Cold  storage,  effect  of  on  demand.  10. 

Colony  houses,  52. 

Color  of  broilers,  15. 

Combining  broilers  and  roasters,  13. 

Combining  broilers  with  general  poultry 
keeping,  10. 

Combining  roasters  with  general  poultry 
keeping,  12. 

Combining  roasters  with  other  occupa- 
tion, 12. 

Competition,  28. 

Cooked  food,  67. 

Cook  house, 54. 

Cooling  poultry,  94. 

Cracked  corn,  79. 

Demand  and  supply.  14. 
Dimensions  of  incubator  cellar,  40. 
Distance  of  pipes  from  brooder  floor,  4f 
Dry  feeding. 65. 
Dry  feed  system,  71. 
Dry  picking,  92. 

Eggs  for  hatching,  22,  57. 
Electric  regulators,  61. 
Exclusive  broiler  plants.  8. 
Exercise  for  brooder  chicks,  77. 

Fattening  broilers,  88. 
Fattening  roasters.  89. 
Faults  of  breeding  stock,  18. 
Feeding  meat,  80. 
Feeding  systems,  65. 
Feeding  systems  in  practice,  76. 

Green  cut  bone,  81. 

Green  food,  79. 

Grit,  82. 

Growers  producing  their  own  eggs.  22. 

Hammonton,  broiler  growing  at,  7. 

Hatching  with  hens,  32. 

Heater  pit,  45. 

Heaters,  46. 

Hot  weather,  fattening  in,  90. 

Houses  for  growing  stock,  51. 

How  often  and  how  much  to  feed,  78. 

Icing  poultry  for  shipment,  95. 

Incubators.  33. 

Incubators  in  outbuildings,  41. 


Incubators,  operating,  58. 
Individual  brooders,  M. 
Individual  brooders  in  long  houses,  48. 
Individual  brooders  in  small  houses,  49.. 

Johnnycake,67. 

Killing,  methods  of,  92. 

Killing  room,  55. 

Kind  of  stock  for  roasters.  19. 

Land,  purifying,  30. 
Land,  quantity  and  kind,  29. 
Leghorns.  26. 
Light  Brahmas,  25. 
Local  demands,  28. 
Location,  27. 

Markets,  27. 

Mash  feeding,  66. 

Mash,  receipts  for,  69. 

Methods  of  hatching  and  rearing,  31., 

Milk,  82. 

M  ongrel  stock ,  20. 

Nursery  brooders,  49. 

Operating  incubators,  58. 
Orpingtons,  24. 
Outdoor  brooders,  50. 
Overcrowding,  63. 

Packing  poultry,  94. 
Packing  room,  55. 
Picking,  methods  of,  92. 
Pin-feathers,  dark  on  broilers,  16, 
Pipe  brooder  houses,  41. 
Pipe  system  of  brooding,  36. 
Plymouth  Rocks,  24. 
Points  of  a  good  broiler.  15. 
Points  of  a  good  roaster,  19. 
Prepared  foods,  74. 

Regulator  for  brooders,  61. 
Itoaster,  defined  ami  described,  7.. 
Rye  for  green  food,  80. 

Sand  lor  floors,  47. 

Scalding  poultry,  92. 

Selling  poultry  alive,  91. 

Shipping,  95. 

Soft  roasters,  11. 

South  Shore  chickens,  11. 

South  Shore  methods.  84. 

Spring  hatched  roasters,  87. 

Squab  broiler.  4. 

Stock  for  producing  broilers,  17.. 

Supply  and  demand,  14. 

Temperature  of  brooder,  62. 
Ventilating  incubator  cellar,  60.. 

Water,  82. 

Weights  of  broilers,  4. 
Weights  of  roasters.  7. 
Wyandottes,  24. 

Yellow  legs  and  skin,  15,  19. 


